[SciPy-dev] [Fwd: Re: license status of your code on netlib]

[Robert Kern]

On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 11:43, <josef.pktd at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 12:22 PM, Robert Kern <robert.kern at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 11:03, <josef.pktd at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 11:29 AM, Robert Kern <robert.kern at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 02:48, Benny Malengier<benny.malengier at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On a side note, due to this I have read
>>>>> http://scipy.org/License_Compatibility and as a developer who writes
>>>>> BSD and GPL licenced code, I find the section 'John Hunter's License
>>>>> Pitch' not very suiting.
>>>>
>>>> I have deleted it. I too do not like having a polemic on a page that
>>>> should just be describing the facts of license compatibility.
>>>>
>>>
>>> I also read this for the first time, but it contains mostly the obvious
>>> cases.
>>>
>>> What is the compatibility for the Apache license ?
>>>
>>> There was the discussion on the cython list and I know of some
>>> packages, that I'm interested in, that use Apache.
>>
>
>> Slightly incompatible. It's mostly good, but it has a few provisions
>> in it, like the patent peace clause, that make it GPLv2-incompatible.
>
> If this is not a typo: I don't understand how GPLv2 compatibility of
> the Apache license affects the compatibility with BSD

Well, compatibility may not be the right word. One can take BSD code
and Apache code and combine them into a program. One can take BSD code
and GPLv2 code and combine them into a program. One cannot take an
Apache code and a GPLv2 code and combine them into a program. This is
frequently what people refer to as "license compatibility".

However, per our BSD *policy* we should not take in Apache code
because then our project will contain code that has additional
restrictions beyond our advertised "BSD license". In particular, users
can mix our BSD code with their GPLv2 code freely. If we had an
Apache-licensed component, they could not. Or at least we would have
to change things significantly to allow people to "avoid" certain
components. That's a pain in the ass; the problem is better resolved
by having the differently-licensed code packaged separately.

-- 
Robert Kern

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless
enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as
though it had an underlying truth."
  -- Umberto Eco