Re: What license should I use when including code from subversion?

On Sun, Feb 29, 2004 at 03:50:59PM -0800, Brian Behlendorf wrote:
> The ASF never considered the 1.1 license to be ASF-incompatible in
> practice. That is to say, no one has ever been sued by the ASF, or even
> asked to stop, for including Apache software inside a GPL release.
>
> Likewise, CollabNet will never sue someone for doing the same thing. Our
> intent for the license is to give *everyone* the ability to include it in
> their works, with minimal notification and liability exemption required.

I realize this hasn't been an issue in practice. But I'd be more
concerned about the reverse. Some GPL author complaining when his work
was combined with subversion licensed code.

> We'd like to update it to the Apache 2.0 license, which is even more
> explicitly compatible with the GPL, despite the FSF's opinion on this
> front. The ASF and the FSF are resolving their last question on this
> front. This is not an algorithmic thing, as it depends on how courts are
> likely to interpret patent language. But, again, the ASF's intent is to
> allow anyone to combine AL-2.0 code with GPL code and distribute it under
> the GPL. That would be ours as well.

I think the jury is still out on the FSF's position on the AL-2.0. The
ASF makes a compelling case for GPL compatibility. The FSF hasn't
officially responded (despite a comment on their website suggesting that
it wasn't compatible).

Additionally, unlike the ASF, you are a commercial business. The
ownership of your copyright might be sold. Your intentions go a long
way. But only as long as you still own the copyrights. If your
business goes under and the copyrights are liquidated who knows what the
new buyer will do with them.

Your statements here do go a long way to creating an estoppel defense
for anyone sued by your successors, if any, for such a claim.

While I make these comments, I'll add that I'm not overly concerned with
the license. If I was I wouldn't have contributed to the project.
Thanks for your response on this issue. It goes a long way towards
dispelling the fears that some might have about this license.

Thanks for licensing your work under an open source license! :)

-- 
Ben Reser <ben@reser.org>
http://ben.reser.org
"Conscience is the inner voice which warns us somebody may be looking."
- H.L. Mencken
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