Re: [fielding@apache.org: Review of proposed Apache License, version 2.0]

[bts@alum.mit.edu (Brian T. Sniffen)]

Glenn Maynard <g_deb@zewt.org> writes:

> On Mon, Nov 17, 2003 at 06:02:12AM +0000, Andrew Suffield wrote:
>> Finally, it is totally unacceptable to tie this into a software
>> copyright license, such that accepting the license affects the status
>> of your own patents. That's non-free however you look at it.
>
> Your own patents are only affected if you contribute code that uses
> them.  If I distribute modifications to a GPL work, the status of my own
> copyright is affected, too.

That first sentence is not true.  Specifically, the candidate Apache
license says:

   5. Reciprocity. If You institute patent litigation against a
      Contributor with respect to a patent applicable to software
      (including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit), then any
      patent licenses granted by that Contributor to You under this
      License shall terminate as of the date such litigation is filed.
      [snipped] 

If I use Apache, and have a significant cost to switch my operations
away from Apache, then I dare not sue any Apache contributor who
infringes on my patents: if I do so, I lose my licenses to use Apache.

If there were a list of relevant patents, this might be at least a
*little* more reasonable.  But given that, for example, IBM has
contributed to Apache, I cannot sue IBM for patent infringement
without losing my license to use Apache.

-Brian

-- 
Brian T. Sniffen                                        bts@alum.mit.edu
                       http://www.evenmere.org/~bts/