[License-review] Request for Approval of Universal Permissive License (UPL)

[Henrik Ingo]

On Mon, Apr 14, 2014 at 6:34 PM, Tzeng, Nigel H. <Nigel.Tzeng at jhuapl.edu> wrote:
> On 4/14/14 10:25 AM, "Josh Berkus" <josh at postgresql.org> wrote:

>>I do not agree with the other developers on this list that the UPL
>>somehow violates the OSD.
>
> I agree with you.  It is limiting but no more so than GPL from a practical
> standpoint.

Josh didn't elaborate on why he thinks this conforms with the OSD, but
in any case I do not agree that this is comparable with the GPL.

Many open source licenses are not compatible with each other. So for
example, you cannot take GPLv2 code and GPLv3 code and mix them
together, as you cannot satisfy both licenses together. This is an
obstacle arising out of the licenses themselves.

However, what the UPL is proposing to do is not the same. With the UPL
I could say "this code is licensed to be used with the Linux kernel,
but no license was given to use this code in MySQL" (even though both
of those are GPLv2 licensed). This would essentially allow me to
arbitrarily license code to some recipients and not others. (The "not"
part here referring to the fact that a patent license is then
explicitly withheld from the others.)

henrik



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