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Apache says ASL2.0 is GPL-compatible
Steve Loughran writes "The ASF board have put up on the Apache Web site, a page
rebutting claims that the new ASL2.0 license is incompatible with the GPL, claims made by on an
FSF page and covered in
Slashdot last week.The key points are (1) The interpretation of the GPL license is not just the opinions of individuals in the FSF, it is designed to be rigorously defendable in a court of law.
(2) Rather than look at opinions about compatibility, people should look at the
ASF2.0 and GPL licenses to see if they really are compatible.
(3) If you look at the two licenses, they really are compatible.
This means there is nothing to stop you linking your [L]GPL apps against apache libraries, shipping them with apache applications, and the like." Of course, this is still up to debate.
Wow, that (the actual linked article) is a very stinging reply to the comment on FSF's site. It hits home (lambasting people on Slashdot for bitching before getting their facts straight) and was way overdue.
According to the article, the comment that caused such a ruckus has not been attributed to any official at FSF and not been communicated to Apache by the FSF.
One of the major advantages of the ASL 2.0 is that it is now easier for non-ASF projects to use the ASL. Previously you had to use an ASL-like license because unless you wanted to assign your copyright to the ASF you needed to adjust the wording of the license to include your name and your organization. The new license removes that information from the license itself and instead places it in a NOTICE file. This allows other open source projects to take advantage of the ASL and use it for their own organization.
While the ASL 2.0 is longer than the ASL 1.1, it's worth a read. A lot of effort was made to make this an easy license to adopt and use. If you're currently using a MIT or BSD style license, you may want to consider the new ASL 2.0.
Who said Freedom was Fair?
We're hearing more about it because one of the primary goals for version 2.0 of the ASL was GPL compatability. The previous versions were known to be incompatabile from the beginning.
"Pseudo-clever-licensing" keeps programmers out of court, dude. Apache's patent termination clause will make patent litigators think twice before bringing frivilous lawsuits. Like it or not, licences are incredibly important, and it's good to see Apache put as much effort into it as the FSF have.
For what it's worth, the official FSF response to the ASL2.0 licence is here, by Eben Moglen. Then Apache changed the licence under review. It's possible the FSF webmasters have not realised this, and that the comment applies only to the licence Eben reviewed (which was not the final ASL2.0). So, we could actually be arguing over nothing.
"Elmo knows where you live!" - The Simpsons
Here's what Linux Torvalds said when asked if he wished he'd chosen a different license the GPL:
Absolutely not. I personally think that the BSD license is a dead end for serious projects, since it inevitably results in forking with no way to re-join if it becomes commercially viable.
Forking a project is in my opinion hugely important, since forks are how all real development gets done, and the ability to fork keeps everybody honest (i.e. if you don't do a good job and keep your users happy, they can always fork the project and go on their own). But equally important is the ability to join back forks, when/if some group finds the right solution to a problem. And that's where the GPL comes in: you can really think of the whole license as nothing more than a requirement to be able to re-join a forked project from either side.
Certainly they're right that the text of the licence, not the opinion of the FSF, is what matters. However, they seem to not understand their own licence:
Actually, the Apache License says more than that. It says "any patent licenses granted to You under this License for that Work shall terminate" if you file certain lawsuits. Without patent licenses, in theory you can't even run the software. (Which is why software patents are evil, stupid, and must be destroyed.)
The Apache License can take away your right to use the software by revoking patent licenses (admittedly, only if you behave like a scumbag, but that's beside the point).This is what is not permitted under the GPL. The GPL states "You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein"; a license that says "you can't use this software if you behave like a scumbag and file patent lawsuits" is not compatible with this requirement.
Again, it's not necessarily a bad idea (as the FSF page notes). But it is not GPL-compatible.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
If you took the time to read Apache Licenses, you'd find that License version 2.0 is not significantly different than previous versions, except that it aimed to be more compatible with GPL.
Not "more conservative" at all!
``You can probably build a non https:// Apache without a few other modules that is GPLable but everyone I've dealt with seems quite happy with the state of apache and the license it uses right now.''
Or even one that does https using GNU TLS.
Personally, I read the ASL2.0 to be GPL-incompatible, due to extra requirements for distribution. I don't care much, though. If you want to link stuff with Apach, it's Apache-specific anyway, so giving it an Apache-specific license wouldn't hurt too much.
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
Because what the Apache license says isnt what is at issue. The Apache license could claim GPL compatiblity until it turns blue, but as long as the GPL isnt compatible with it you cant distribute GPL code together with, and linked to it.
Say John writes some Apache licensed code, and Jim writes some GPL covered code. Then Joe comes along, takes Jim's code, writes an Apache module that includes Jim's code (after all, the Apache license says it's ok). Joe's module becomes popular and gets included in the big distributions.
At that point, however, Jim gets an offer he cant refuse from our darling Darl, and promptly sues every Linux distributor he can think of for copyright infringement since he doesnt consider the GPL terms on distributing his code fulfilled.
So, are you feeling lucky today?
Code released under the GPL may be included in projects with thse liceances:
GPL
Nope. Or to be more precise, that's only partially true. The project as a whole must be considered to be under the GPL if portions are GPL'd, but portions that are not GPL'd, but are merely under a compatible license, are still under that compatible license. Thus (practical actual working real-world example here), I have a project that is BSD'd except for one module (an EMACS connector) that is GPL'd. Thus, the whole thing is distributed under the terms of the GPL, but the module is completely separate, and if you delete it, what you are left with is a BSD'd project. If the GPL prevented this, I would have to distribute the module separately, which would be stupid and pointless, but it doesn't, so I don't.