GPLv3 Released, Apache Rejects Compatibility Claim
The Free Software Foundation released GNU General Public License, version 3 (GPLv3) yesterday.
FSF: Version 3 of the GNU GPL strengthens this guarantee, by ensuring that users can modify the free software on their personal and household devices, and granting patent licenses to every user. It also extends compatibility with other free software licenses and increases international uniformity.
One of the gaols of GPLv3 is to make it compatible with the Apache License 2.0.
Richard Stallman: GPLv3 is now compatible with the Apache 2.0 license
However, Sam Ruby—"Hey, I just might be “whomever”. :-)" of Apache Software Foundation—reacted negatively to the compatibility claim:
Sam Ruby: The GPL V3 license is compatible with the ASF V2 license in precisely the same way that blood type AB is compatible with blood type O.
Specifically,
Sam Ruby: Apache Software Foundation will not distribute code which has either a direct dependency on GPL licensed code, or will only meaningfully operate when GPL code is installed.
The license war continues.
Re: GPLv3 Released, Apache Rejects Compatibility Claim
Nice hatchet job.
The Apache Software Foundation releases code that conforms to the Apache License. Such code can productively be used with code of numerous other license, including GPL.
If you want code under other licenses, you get them from their source. My web site, for example, is powered by Apache running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Re: GPLv3 Released, Apache Rejects Compatibility Claim
> Nice hatchet job.
Auch!
> The Apache Software Foundation releases code that conforms to the > Apache License. Such code can productively be used with code of > numerous other license, including GPL. If you want code under other licenses, > you get them from their source. My web site, for example, is powered by Apache > running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
That's the other half of the status quo. So has anything changed from Apache's perspective?
Re: GPLv3 Released, Apache Rejects Compatibility Claim
My guess is that previously ASLv2 projects could not be relicensed under GPLv2 and so GPL-strict distributions could not include ASL projects. Instead with GPLv3 (If I understood it correctly) the ASLv2 projects could be included/relicensed/redistributed in GPLv3 projects.
On the other side (use of GPLv2 or GPLv3 code in ASL projects) nothing changed.
Anyway I think that this is already a good news for ASF+linux.
Re: GPLv3 Released, Apache Rejects Compatibility Claim
It's will always be one straight way compatibility. Apache license can be relicensed under GPLv3 but not the reverse. This is what FSF call compatibility, the reverse was never and will never be compatible because Apache license allows you only to release the object code.