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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.

12 of 384 comments (clear)

  1. mod do3N by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
  2. MACINTOSH 666 SIGN OF THE DEVIL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    The proof is here

    Apple Computers, the evil makers of the popular Macintosh line of computers are guilty of sin. The real operating system hiding under the newest version of the Macintosh operating system (MacOS X) is called... Darwin! That's right, new Macs are based on Darwinism! While they currently don't advertise this fact to consumers, it is well known among the computer elite, who are mostly Atheists and Pagans. Furthermore, the Darwin OS is released under an "Open Source" license, which is just another name for Communism. They try to hide all of this under a facade of shiny, "lickable" buttons, but the truth has finally come out: Apple Computers promote Godless Darwinism and Communism.

    But is this really such a shock? Lets look for a moment at Apple Computers. Founded by long haired hippies, this company has consistently supported 60's counter-cultural "values"2. But there are even darker undertones to this company than most are aware of. Consider the name of the company and its logo: an apple with a bite taken out of it. This is clearly a reference to the Fall, when Adam and Eve were tempted with an apple3 by the serpent. It is now Apple Computers offering us temptation, thereby aligning themselves with the forces of darkness4.

    This company is well known for its cult-like following. It isn't much of a stretch to say that it is a cult. Consider co-founder and leader Steve Jobs' constant exhortation through advertising (i.e. mind control) that its followers should "think different". We have to ask ourselves: "think different than whom or what?" The disturbing answer is that they want us to think different than our Christian upbringing, to reject all the values that we have been taught and to heed not the message of the Lord Jesus Christ!

    Given the now obvious anti-Christian and cultish nature of Apple Computers, is it any wonder that they have decided to base their newest operating system on Darwinism? This just reaffirms the position that Darwinism is an inherently anti-Christian philosophy spread through propaganda and subliminal trickery, not a science as its brainwashed followers would have us believe.

  3. Re:You know what ? by utahjazz · · Score: 0, Troll

    Exactly. Or the Apache license.

    If you code for the fun or to provide the world with something, use BSD/MIT/Apache license.

    If you're trying to make a pointless statement, by all means use GPL.

  4. Bye bye goatse.cx by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    [To the tune of "American Pie" by Don McLean]


    A long long time ago
    I can still remember how that image used to burn my eyes
    And I knew if I had my chance
    I could hide a link in a rant
    and maybe they'd be pissed off for a while.
    But January made me shiver
    with every link-troll I deliver
    Bad links on the doorstep, I couldn't take one more step.
    I can't remember if I cried
    when I heard about his orphaned site
    But something touched me deep inside
    the day the goatse died.


    So bye bye to the goatse site
    Put his fingers up his asshole and his asshole was wide.
    Yeah these old trolls were on Slashdot and K5
    Singing this will be the day the Net dies
    This will be the day the Net dies.

  5. Here's a hint by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Nobody cares about your stupid fucking licenses! Just try making decent software for a change, like Microsoft.

  6. Re:GPL... by SFEley · · Score: 0, Troll
    Which world would you rather have? A world with the GPL as a licensing option, or a world without it? The first world has more free software available, software that respects the rights of the user instead of trying to control the user through EULAs and insidious distribution terms.

    False dilemma. The existence of other effective free licenses that achieve the goals you describe shows that the GPL isn't strictly needed. It may once have been needed, when there wasn't anything else, and its revolutionary attitude may have inspired more hackers to action than a more relaxed license would have, but today it's no longer the world's salvation. It's the guy still wearing the hippie shirt and singing Vietnam protest songs all by himself, never quite noticing that his friends grew up and bought Volvos.

    --
    ESCAPE POD - The Science Fiction Podcast Magazine
  7. Is! Isn't! Is! Isn't! Is! Isn't! by ENOENT · · Score: 0, Troll

    Oh yeah! Well, your mother's not GPL compatible!

    --
    That's "Mr. Soulless Automaton" to you, Bub.
  8. ANONYMOUS COWARD TOUCHED MEH JUNK CONSERVATIVELY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    WHILST ON TEH SPOKE

  9. Re:Authors real opinion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    So if you believe you have the right to license your software any way you choose you are fascist? Wow...I could have sworn that was called freedom. Not fascism. I'm sure the Fascist Software Foundation knows better though.

  10. infection or cure by JDizzy · · Score: 0, Troll

    The GPL is considered a virus, because it is free as in BEER but not as in FREEDOM. It hooks you in with the "FREE BEER" aspect of the software, but you cannot do anything with that software except look at it, or use it. Don't you dare try to use your creativity to change it, because the greedy authors of the original art think your changes is their art. Its a typical trap license, and for people to bitch about another license being incompatible with a virus just sounds silly. The reality is the Apache License has more liberty packed in a few sentances than the GPL will ever have in its' pages upon pages leagal rehtoric.

    The sad thing is all this hinges on giving the authors of software fair credit, which the Apache license belives is fair. Where the GPL belives that mentioning contrinutors, you know that people who add contributiosn to the gpl virus-ware, should get due credit, instead of being put under an umbrella of nameless, forgoten contributors who the author forgets to mention, and thus steals their contributions. This is typical GPL fair. The original author offten steals the contributions and never mentions the source of all the little patches, and alterations they force others to give back to them under the terms of the GPL, because the GPL license says listing authors is an incompatiblity.

    You don't belive me? Well read for yourself at the GPL website: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/bsd.html. They spell it out very clearly that listing authors gets in the way of their eventual theft.

    --
    It isn't a lie if you belive it.
  11. Re:Get your facts straight by October_30th · · Score: 1, Troll
    There is an issue with combining code from non-GPLed products and GPLed products into a new product, which is why XFree 4.4 is going the way of the Dodo

    Ok. And that's not exactly the issue I was complaining about because...?

    the freedom to chose the license we prefer for our code, which for many of us is a "share-alike" license such as the GPL.

    Oh, you GPL advocates are so cute when you talk about freedom. I grew out of it many years ago when I realized the only kind of freedom RMS likes is the restrictive kind of freedom: all licenses except GPL are bad.

    I remember that. It's ok to choose any license for your software as long as you choose GPL. Right?

    rabblerousing from the proprietary sidelines via agent provocateurs, and their less intelligent cousins, trolls such as yourself, notwithstanding.

    Yeah, damn those freethinking people who have trouble accepting the GPL dogma.

    --
    The owls are not what they seem
  12. BLOCK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    M2/%]Q#;V]S-%=#:?)*DC`'0,?UK;LK+_`(2#239W$:1I,H$YC &"5SR"1Z_XU
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