[License-review] Approval: BSD + Patent License

[Mark Wielaard]

On Fri, 2016-01-15 at 09:20 -0500, Jim Jagielski wrote:
> For the record, the ALv2 was also designed to be compatible w/ the
> GPLv2 and during the drafting process, comments and suggestions
> from various parties associated with the GPL were incorporated.
> We fully expected that the FSF (and others), based on this and
> from their feedback, would formally state that ALv2 was compatible;
> you can imagine our surprise (and disappointment) when, not long
> after we released it, we were told "nope".

That is not how I read the feedback the FSF gave on the ASLv2 draft:
http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/archive-license/200311.mbox/%
3C16309.18688.540989.283163 at new.law.columbia.edu%3E
It states that the patent retaliation clause is incompatible in general
with GPLv2. But that it is a good idea anyway. And that if the ASLv2 was
changed in certain ways then it could be used as template for the next
version of the GPL to make ASLv2 and GPLv3 compatible. Which is what
happily happened in the end.

Eben Moglen's comments on the ASLv2 draft above might be interesting in
general for this discussion since it not only touches on patent clauses
that might be (in)compatible with the GPL, but also what is a
contribution/contributor.

Cheers,

Mark