License compatibility (was Re: CSV parsing/writing?)

[Simon Kitching <sk...@apache.org>]

On Thu, 2005-05-26 at 08:40 -0700, Martin Cooper wrote:
> On 5/26/05, Don Seiler <do...@seiler.us> wrote:
> > On 08:54 Thu 26 May     , Don Seiler wrote:
> > > I would be willing to start an sf.net project with ASL for license, and
> > > then jakarta would be more than welcome to do what they want with it.
> > > Any and all are welcome to join as well.
> > 
> > Just out of curiosity, is LGPL compatible with ASL?
> 
> No, it's not, unfortunately. ;-(

It depends on which direction you are talking about. 

Can LGPL code be invoked from APL code, with the result distributed
under the APL? Well, the FSF says it can, the ASF board say it can't. I
*believe* it mostly hinges on the meaning of the word "linking" in the
java environment. The current Apache policy is very clear: no direct
calling of GPL or LGPL code is allowed from Apache-hosted projects. As a
result, I would be very wary of doing this even somewhere like
Sourceforge.


Can APL code be used as part of a project distributed under the LGPL or
GPL? The ASF board says maybe, the FSF say it can't. The reason is due
to "patent termination" clauses in the APL2.0: 
   http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/license-list.html
   http://www.apache.org/licenses/GPL-compatibility.html


There have been ongoing discussions between the ASF and the FSF for
years about this. Both sides want the licenses to be compatible, but no
progress so far. 


If you're keen for your code to be useable in all of GPL/LGPL/APL
projects, then I *think* you need to use a BSD license; it's the "common
denominator". But I'm not a lawyer.


Regards,

Simon


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Re: License compatibility (was Re: CSV parsing/writing?)

[Don Seiler <do...@seiler.us>]

On 08:35 Fri 27 May     , Simon Kitching wrote:
> If you're keen for your code to be useable in all of GPL/LGPL/APL
> projects, then I *think* you need to use a BSD license; it's the "common
> denominator". But I'm not a lawyer.

I will go with the "new" BSD license then.

The project is approved and is named "csv4j".
http://sf.net/projects/csv4j

My work won't be terribly complicated (perhaps downright fugly) but I
hope to have something done sooner rather than later, as I need it for
work anyway.

-- 
Don Seiler
don@seiler.us

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