GPL-compatibility and other questions

Donnal Walter donnalcwalter at yahoo.com
Mon Nov 1 17:07:51 UTC 2004


To get the advice I need, it may be necessary for me to outline my
project and ask more specific questions. But before I do so, let me
try asking a few general questions.

1. I am trying to compare licenses. Is there a more up-to-date or
more official version of the following draft document (found via
Google), which is now two years old?

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/Licensing-HOWTO.html#choosing

2. Is OSL 2.1 still considered "incompatible" with Gnu GPL? If so,
isn't this a liability? I use Python, for example, which went to
great lengths to make sure their license is GPL-compatible.

3. FSF states that AFL 1.1 is incompatible with GPL, but the draft
document above says that AFL is GPL compatible. Is AFL 2.1 now
compatible?

4. My project is heavy on domain expertise (healthcare) and light
on computing inovations. In this case, I am having a hard time
seeing how the explicit patent grant and the patent mutual
termination clause is of importance. Am I missing something? And if
not, are there other reasons to prefer OSL over GPL?

Thanks you.

Warm regards,
Donnal Walter, MD, PhD
Arkansas Children's Hospital





More information about the License-discuss mailing list