Relicensing OpenSSL

Posted Mar 24, 2017 17:43 UTC (Fri) by SEJeff (guest, #51588)
Parent article: Relicensing OpenSSL

And a link for Theo's amusing gcc license change, which seems mostly a large snark in proper Theo style: https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-tech&m=149032069130072&...

Relicensing OpenSSL

Posted Mar 24, 2017 18:47 UTC (Fri) by imgx64 (guest, #78590) [Link] (7 responses)

But isn't the Apache License 2 incompatible with GPLv2? Why don't they relicense to MIT, ISC, or 2-clause BSD and end the whole OpenSSL license exception madness?

Patents

Posted Mar 24, 2017 20:29 UTC (Fri) by david.a.wheeler (subscriber, #72896) [Link] (5 responses)

They're choosing Apache 2, because worried about patents. Most GPL'ed software is "version 2 or later" so in many cases there isn't an incompatibility. Obvious exceptions: The Linux kernel and git.

Patents

Posted Mar 24, 2017 21:47 UTC (Fri) by njs (guest, #40338) [Link] (2 responses)

A common solution to the patents issues is to dual-license under MIT + Apache2. The patent language in Apache2 is basically a restriction on authors, not on users, so this anyone who wants the patent guarantees can choose the Apache2 version and anyone who wants GPL-compatibility can choose the MIT version.

Patents

Posted Mar 25, 2017 10:52 UTC (Sat) by Conan_Kudo (subscriber, #103240) [Link] (1 responses)

I'm not sure that's so common. The only place I've ever seen that is in the Rust ecosystem. I don't know of anyone else doing that...

Patents

Posted Mar 26, 2017 6:54 UTC (Sun) by njs (guest, #40338) [Link]

The most recent place I've seen it is in some core Python projects like cryptography and packaging.

I agree it's not common in absolute terms, but it is a common solution to the problem of wanting to have some patent protection with widely compatible licensing terms :-). And probably should be more common than it is; I think most people just haven't thought about it.

Patents

Posted Mar 26, 2017 7:34 UTC (Sun) by paulj (subscriber, #341) [Link]

If you modify a "GPLv2 or later" work to rely on ASL code, in a way that causes the "GPLv2 or later" work to become derived from the ASL code, then there is no way the resulting work can be distributed under the GPLv2 - the only way to satisfy the "GPLv2 or later" condition in such a case would be to distribute as v3.

So, yes, it's compatible, in a "you may be forced to upgrade to v3" kind of way.

Patents

Posted Mar 30, 2017 12:47 UTC (Thu) by Sesse (subscriber, #53779) [Link]

Another exception: MySQL's community release, which is GPLv2, period.

(Disclaimer. I work on MySQL.)

Relicensing OpenSSL

Posted Mar 26, 2017 0:56 UTC (Sun) by ssmith32 (subscriber, #72404) [Link]

That's probably exactly why they did it. Given the change was partially brought to you by the Linux Foundation (first line in the announcement), which isn't exactly full of GPL supporters.

Relicensing OpenSSL

Posted Mar 24, 2017 18:48 UTC (Fri) by imgx64 (guest, #78590) [Link]

Oops. I meant to comment on the article itself, not reply to this comment.

Relicensing OpenSSL

Posted Mar 25, 2017 9:51 UTC (Sat) by roc (subscriber, #30627) [Link] (1 responses)

I wonder what he meant by "especially as rust makes inroads".

Corrodophobia

Posted Mar 26, 2017 22:12 UTC (Sun) by Jan_Zerebecki (guest, #70319) [Link]

He was likely referring to Rust as in http://rust-lang.org/ and not rust. Some people would like to use a language that is more helpful in preventing certain bug classes than C, while still being able to write in it all such software where C is popular. E.g. libraries with a C compatible API, operating system kernels, init systems, software running without a kernel or libc. Rust is one language that has many people working on it with that goal. Also Rust is dual licensed under MIT and Apache-2.0, not BSD.

Relicensing OpenSSL

Relicensing OpenSSL

Relicensing OpenSSL

Patents

Patents

Patents

Patents

Patents

Patents

Relicensing OpenSSL

Relicensing OpenSSL

Relicensing OpenSSL

Corrodophobia

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