[License-discuss] Permissive but anti-patent license

[Chad Perrin]

On Fri, Dec 21, 2012 at 09:54:23AM +0000, John Funnell wrote:
> Dear all,
> 
> GPL v2 and v3 have anti-patent clauses that says, in effect, that if
> anyone arranges a patent license for distribution of the code, they
> have to arrange that license for all possible downstream recipients of
> the code and derivatives.
> 
> I would like to take this one step further so that the anti-patent
> clause covers use as well as distribution. I propose the license
> below, a BSD derivative.
> 
> The aim, like GPL, is to drive a wedge between the software patent
> business and open software and the hope is to encourage the
> neutralisation (i.e. licensing for all) of critical patents that
> threaten popular free software.
> 
> I am aware that the clause proposed only covers third-party patents:
> it might be worth rewording or including a clause to cover patents
> owned by the user/re-distributor themselves.
> 
> I hope this makes sense. Please let me know if (a) there is an
> existing license that does this and (b) whether this would qualify as
> true open source.

I'm afraid I'm a month late here, but . . .

    http://copyfree.org/licenses/coil/license.txt

-- 
Chad Perrin [ original content licensed OWL: http://owl.apotheon.org ]
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