Re: Official Listing of the curl License at Open Source Initiative (OSI)

On Tue, 3 Feb 2026, Christoph Röth via curl-library wrote:

> I would like to have the curl license listed with the Open Source Initiative 
> (OSI) (opensource.org). After going through the approval process, the curl 
> license will be considered an OSI Approved License. The OSI will thus 
> confirm that it is an open source license.

Excellent! I mean we all knew it already, but getting it publicly confirmed 
like that feels good and appropriate. Thanks for doing this.

> The first point is permission to have the curl license officially listed at 
> Open Source Initiative (OSI). Can someone grant me official permission?

I suppose that should be me, and yes you have my permission to have it listed 
by the Open Source Initiative. I think that is in everyone's best interest.

> I would like to address the second point here based on the feedback from my 
> initial contact with the OSI. The curl project itself refers to the SPDX 
> listing, where curl is listed as a standalone license.

Yes, since SPDX added it as its own license identifier that seems to be the 
most accurate SPDX name to use.

> I would like to ask whether there are plans to change the license to a full 
> MIT license.

There are no such plans and I don't think anyone has asked us to in the last 
twenty years.

  - we have used this license for a long time by now
  - it does not seem to hamper adoption or be a problem to users nor
    contributors
  - changing the license is work we can avoid
  - changing the license causes ripple effects everywhere, which I think we
    should only trigger if it is important

-- 

  / daniel.haxx.se || https://rock-solid.curl.dev

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