RE: [tdf-discuss] LO vs AOO : GPL/LGPL vs ASL licences

That is completely incorrect, no matter how many folks keep saying it. 

Put simply: using the LibreOffice or Apache OpenOffice distributions does not raise any practical 
limitations on most personal use as well as use by individuals in their business or institutional 
activities.

 - Dennis

PS: The preferred terms is ALv2 (ASL is something else), or simply Apache License. 

DETAILS

Committers to Apache projects retain all rights, while granting the ASF a perpetual license to 
distribute under ASF-chosen license terms.  There is no transfer of ownership whatsoever.  (Just 
for a moment of irony, it was the case that Sun and then Oracle did require a [non-exclusive] 
transfer of ownership, as does the Free Software Foundation to this day.)  

You can find the ALv2 everywhere.  The Committer License Agreement (CLA) is here: 
<http://www.apache.org/licenses/icla.txt>.

The key statement is this: 

   "Except for the license granted herein to the Foundation
    and recipients of software distributed by the Foundation, 
    You reserve all right, title, and interest in and to 
    Your Contributions."

Note that people who simply make use of the ALv2 and distribute their own (and derivative) work 
under the ALv2 don't have to make any such grant.  It is contributors to ASF-sponsored projects 
that do this.

This is not much difference to the e-mail grants of license that LibreOffice committers make to the 
TDF, except those grants name specific licenses (and say nothing about patents).

The fundamental technical difference is that the Apache ALv2 license is not a reciprocal license.  
It does not require that derivative works be provided in source code and under the same license.  
The ALv2 also has no limitations on the use of a distribution or its derivative in an embedded 
system or inside of a [commercial] distributed service. 

The license differences have no practical impact on end users.  It does have ideological importance 
to contributors.  Some end users may want to express their allegiance to one model or the other. In 
cultivating such allegiance, it is valuable to stick to the facts.

 - Dennis


-----Original Message-----
From: webmaster-Kracked_P_P [mailto:webmaster@krackedpress.com] 
Sent: Monday, December 31, 2012 12:19
To: discuss@documentfoundation.org
Subject: Re: [tdf-discuss] LO vs AOO : GPL/LGPL vs ASL licences

[ ... ]
>

As I was told, LO's license will allow the developer to own the coding 
they are sharing with the project, where AOO's really will give that 
project the ownership of the coding.  Whether or not the "wording" is 
stating that, that is what most developers I have "talked" with have 
told me.

[ ... ]


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