ASF Project Licensing

["St Leger, Jim" <ji...@intel.com>]

I have heard that ASF only accepts projects that are licensed under the Apache license.
I've searched and do not find this specifically called out. Perhaps it's assumed.
Can you please confirm or correct if this is the case?

And if yes, does that mean that a project that uses another permissive license (e.g. BSD, MIT, etc.) would have to get all copyright owners to agree to a move to an Apache license prior to approaching the ASF?

Thanks,
Jim

Re: ASF Project Licensing

[Jarek Potiuk <ja...@potiuk.com>]

I think this is pretty comprehensive, yet compact explanation of the
licensing policy at ASF: https://www.apache.org/legal/resolved.html . As an
engineer, I think it is one of the best documents ever I saw regarding
licencing and I already forwarded it to a number of my friends who asked
about some good approach to licencing. It's written in a very approachable
way, with clear explanations, FAQs, uses cases etc.

I heartily recommend reading it all ! It's a fascinating read for a legal
document (even for an engineer).

J.


On Wed, Feb 12, 2020 at 6:46 PM Shane Curcuru <as...@shanecurcuru.org> wrote:

> St Leger, Jim wrote on 2020-2-12 12:26PM EST:
> > I have heard that ASF only accepts projects that are licensed under the
> Apache license.
> > I've searched and do not find this specifically called out. Perhaps it's
> assumed.
> > Can you please confirm or correct if this is the case?
>
> It depends.  We always develop and *ship* software under Apache-2.0:
>
>   https://www.apache.org/licenses/#distributions
>
> But many of our projects contain dependencies or other materials that
> may still be under other, similar permissive-style licenses.
>
> > And if yes, does that mean that a project that uses another permissive
> license (e.g. BSD, MIT, etc.) would have to get all copyright owners to
> agree to a move to an Apache license prior to approaching the ASF?
>
> The Incubator has an IP Clearance guide which is the place to start:
>
>   https://incubator.apache.org/guides/ip_clearance.html
>
> Once you have a proposal for bringing a project to the Incubator, there
> are people on the relevant incubator mailing lists who can help with the
> process.  In practice, accepting a codebase that's being willingly
> donated and is under similar permissive licenses is just fine, and not
> that hard to do.
>
> Good luck!
>
> --
>
> - Shane
>   ComDev PMC & Member
>   The Apache Software Foundation
>
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>

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+48 660 796 129

Re: ASF Project Licensing

[Justin Mclean <ju...@classsoftware.com>]

Hi,

There is also the option of having the code re-licensed (with the owners agreement) if it’s not under a compatible license.May projects that come to the Incubator didn’t have their original codebase under the Apache license.

Thanks,
Justin
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Re: ASF Project Licensing

[Shane Curcuru <as...@shanecurcuru.org>]

St Leger, Jim wrote on 2020-2-12 12:26PM EST:
> I have heard that ASF only accepts projects that are licensed under the Apache license.
> I've searched and do not find this specifically called out. Perhaps it's assumed.
> Can you please confirm or correct if this is the case?

It depends.  We always develop and *ship* software under Apache-2.0:

  https://www.apache.org/licenses/#distributions

But many of our projects contain dependencies or other materials that
may still be under other, similar permissive-style licenses.

> And if yes, does that mean that a project that uses another permissive license (e.g. BSD, MIT, etc.) would have to get all copyright owners to agree to a move to an Apache license prior to approaching the ASF?

The Incubator has an IP Clearance guide which is the place to start:

  https://incubator.apache.org/guides/ip_clearance.html

Once you have a proposal for bringing a project to the Incubator, there
are people on the relevant incubator mailing lists who can help with the
process.  In practice, accepting a codebase that's being willingly
donated and is under similar permissive licenses is just fine, and not
that hard to do.

Good luck!

-- 

- Shane
  ComDev PMC & Member
  The Apache Software Foundation

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