Reciprocity and Copyleft (Was: Proposal: Apache Third Party License Policy)

[Lawrence Rosen <lr...@rosenlaw.com>]

[moving this to a sub-thread]

Jukka Zitting wrote:
>> Our license states "The contents of the NOTICE file are for 
>> informational purposes only and do not modify the License." (ALv2, 
>> 4d),

Larry Rosen responded:
> This remains a true statement under the proposed Third Party License Policy.

Jukka then said:
> This bit doesn't sound like that: "Modifiers and re-distributors of Apache
> software will now need to read the NOTICE files to determine whether
> they have any derivative work reciprocity requirements for specific 
> contributions."


Jukka, as a lawyer (even though I don't represent you!) I try always to be VERY careful with my  public words. When I refer to "reciprocity" I do not mean the mythical "viral" implications of the made-up word "copyleft." Reciprocity itself is no big deal. Almost every FOSS license nowadays bears some kind of reciprocity condition relating to copyright or patent or attribution, so there's no reason to leave all this great software out of Apache projects simply because some people confuse "derivative works" with "linking".

You must notice that I rewrite VERY PRECISELY some of the words put by others into my mouth. Sometimes I'm sloppy, though, particularly when certain board members piss me off by saying stupid things, but usually I mean exactly what I write. :-) 

NOTHING modifies our ALv2 license on our own copyrighted AGGREGATE WORKS that our projects publish. That's why we publish ALL source code and only accept FOSS contributions that allow free use worldwide.

NOTHING modifies the OTHER FOSS licenses on each contribution. 17 USC 103.

So it is ALWAYS a true statement that this proposed Apache Third Party License Policy DOES NOT MODIFY THE LICENSE. (ALv2, 4d)  In fact, it doesn't modify ANY license. It can't.

/Larry


-----Original Message-----
From: Jukka Zitting [mailto:jukka.zitting@gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, May 18, 2015 8:42 AM
To: legal-discuss@apache.org; lrosen@rosenlaw.com
Subject: Re: LICENSE vs. NOTICE (Was: Proposal: Apache Third Party License Policy)
<snip the rest for this sub-thread]


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Re: Reciprocity and Copyleft (Was: Proposal: Apache Third Party License Policy)

[Jukka Zitting <ju...@gmail.com>]

Hi,

2015-05-18 12:41 GMT-04:00 Lawrence Rosen <lr...@rosenlaw.com>:
> So it is ALWAYS a true statement that this proposed Apache Third Party License Policy
> DOES NOT MODIFY THE LICENSE. (ALv2, 4d)  In fact, it doesn't modify ANY license. It can't.

Indeed.

I'm more worried about the "for informational purposes only" part, and
the mixed messaging we're already giving out by suggesting that the
NOTICE file has or should have a role beyond the one stated in 4d.

BR,

Jukka Zitting

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