git@vger.kernel.org mailing list mirror (one of many)
 help / color / mirror / code / Atom feed
From: demerphq <demerphq@gmail.com>
To: "Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason" <avarab@gmail.com>
Cc: Git <git@vger.kernel.org>, Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Subject: Re: Will OpenSSL's license change impact us?
Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2017 17:57:43 +0100	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <CANgJU+WR4L-7-r97od7ids6VK9QyO-QzAntbg7SazmPGj0yWXA@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CACBZZX4Haah8JmSG6BbfpdOA1aAxtjiuYirLH4=jt01kHL4eQA@mail.gmail.com>

On 25 March 2017 at 17:35, Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <avarab@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Mar 25, 2017 at 10:43 AM, demerphq <demerphq@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> On 25 Mar 2017 10:18 a.m., "Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason" <avarab@gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> On Sat, Mar 25, 2017 at 9:40 AM, demerphq <demerphq@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On 25 March 2017 at 00:51, Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <avarab@gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>> They're changing their license[1] to Apache 2 which unlike the current
>>>> fuzzy compatibility with the current license[2] is explicitly
>>>> incompatible with GPLv2[3].
>>>
>>> Are you sure there is an issue? From the Apache page on this:
>>>
>>> Apache 2 software can therefore be included in GPLv3 projects, because
>>> the GPLv3 license accepts our software into GPLv3 works. However,
>>> GPLv3 software cannot be included in Apache projects. The licenses are
>>> incompatible in one direction only, and it is a result of ASF's
>>> licensing philosophy and the GPLv3 authors' interpretation of
>>> copyright law.
>>>
>>> Which seems to be the opposite of the concern you are expressing.
>>
>> The Apache 2 license is indeed compatible with the GPLv3, but the Git
>> project explicitly uses GPLv2 with no "or later" clause
>>
>>
>> Read the paragraph immediately (I think) after the one I quoted where they
>> state the situation is the same with GPL v2.
>
> My understanding of that paragraph is that it's still laying out
> caveats about exactly how GPLv3 is compatible with Apache 2, when it
> is, when it isn't etc. But then it goes on to say:
>
> """
> Despite our best efforts, the FSF has never considered the Apache
> License to be compatible with GPL version 2, citing the patent
> termination and indemnification provisions as restrictions not present
> in the older GPL license. The Apache Software Foundation believes that
> you should always try to obey the constraints expressed by the
> copyright holder when redistributing their work.
> """
>
> So they're just deferring to the FSF saying it's incompatible, the
> FSF's statement:
> https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#apache2 "this license
> is not compatible with GPL version 2".
>
> Anyway, I'm not a lawyer. Just thought I'd send some E-Mail about this
> since I noticed it, if it's an issue (and we could e.g. get the SFC to
> comment, Jeff?) we might need to add e.g. some checks / macros to
> ensure we're not compiling against an incompatible OpenSSL.

Just for the record this what Apache says, with the part I was
referring to earlier in slash style italics, and a couple of a key
points in star style bold:

----quote----
Apache 2 software *can therefore be included in GPLv3 projects*,
because the GPLv3 license accepts our software into GPLv3 works.
However, GPLv3 software cannot be included in Apache projects. *The
licenses are incompatible in one direction only*, and it is a result
of ASF's licensing philosophy and the GPLv3 authors' interpretation of
copyright law.

This licensing incompatibility applies only when some Apache project
software becomes a derivative work of some GPLv3 software, because
then the Apache software would have to be distributed under GPLv3.
This would be incompatible with ASF's requirement that all Apache
software must be distributed under the Apache License 2.0.

We avoid GPLv3 software because merely linking to it is considered by
the GPLv3 authors to create a derivative work. We want to honor their
license. Unless GPLv3 licensors relax this interpretation of their own
license regarding linking, our licensing philosophies are
fundamentally incompatible. /This is an identical issue for both GPLv2
and GPLv3./
----quote----

I read that as saying that you can use Apache 2 code in GPL projects,
but you can't use GPL code in Apache projects. Which makes sense as
Apache 2 is more liberal than GPL.

Yves

-- 
perl -Mre=debug -e "/just|another|perl|hacker/"

  reply	other threads:[~2017-03-25 16:57 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 11+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2017-03-24 23:51 Will OpenSSL's license change impact us? Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason
2017-03-25  8:40 ` demerphq
2017-03-25  9:18   ` Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason
     [not found]     ` <CANgJU+UG1JGYomyQa1FgyN8Q6SkPeEtGKEJfNETrkbtGwrMn9g@mail.gmail.com>
2017-03-25 16:35       ` Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason
2017-03-25 16:57         ` demerphq [this message]
2017-03-25 17:51           ` Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason
2017-03-25 21:11             ` Theodore Ts'o
2017-03-25 21:50               ` Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason
2017-03-25 21:44 ` brian m. carlson
2017-03-25 21:52   ` Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason
2017-03-26  4:43     ` Jeff King

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

  List information: http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=CANgJU+WR4L-7-r97od7ids6VK9QyO-QzAntbg7SazmPGj0yWXA@mail.gmail.com \
    --to=demerphq@gmail.com \
    --cc=avarab@gmail.com \
    --cc=git@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=peff@peff.net \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
Code repositories for project(s) associated with this public inbox

	https://80x24.org/mirrors/git.git

This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox;
as well as URLs for read-only IMAP folder(s) and NNTP newsgroup(s).