[kwlug-disc] Switch license or keep it the same?

[doug moen]

I know there are a lot of projects that use dual licensing, but I can't
personally endorse the practice. I use the Apache 2 licence for Curv, which
is compatible with GPL3 and most other licences. I really appreciate the
clear wording of the licence, which makes it absolutely clear what the
rights and obligations are, either if some corporation uses my code, or
some corporation contributes to my code. I stopped using the MIT licence
because different people interpret it in different ways, with respect to my
rights as an author, and the patent grant clause in Apache 2 protects both
me and other users from patent litigation in certain cases. The Apache
foundation recommends against dual licensing:

"The ASF will not *dual*-*license* our software because such *licenses* make
it impossible to determine the conditions under which we have agreed to
collaborate on a collective product, and are thus contrary to the
*Apache* spirit
of open, collaborative development among individuals, industry, and
nonprofit organizations."

I'm sure that paragraph was written by a lawyer working for the Apache
foundation, so it reflects a lawyer perspective on dual licensing.

On 15 April 2018 at 21:50, Chris Frey <cdfrey at foursquare.net> wrote:

> On Thu, Apr 12, 2018 at 03:12:03PM -0400, Paul Nijjar via kwlug-disc wrote:
> > I don't hate the GPL but I chose the Apache license deliberately so
> > that giant corporations would be willing to use my scripts to send
> > newsletters. But this is not a big consideration for me.
>
> You are the copyright holder.  You are not affected by the licenses
> you choose for your own code.  You can mix and match for personal use
> with anything you like.
>
> It is the distribution where it affects the poor person trying to use your
> scripts.  To make that easy, I'd just say in your license file that they
> can use this code under either Apache or GPL at their choice.  And keep
> the integration code that depends on the GPL dependency modularized
> enough so that any giant corpiration that wants to use your scripts can
> choose Apache + rewrite GPL module themselves.
>
> The only place this matters for you is when someone submits a patch
> to you for inclusion.  If they also allow use of their code under both
> licenses, you're fine.
>
> Just my non-lawyer $0.02.
> - Chris
>
>
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