Reasons to Not Make up your Own Open Source License

If Google can’t get their WebM license right, then who can:

I did wonder why they didn’t just go with GPLv3 but I figured that Google usually like the BSD-style licenses. They have answers on their Licensing FAQ but still, it makes you wonder.

For example, I wonder if this is essentially the BSD license with the patent clauses from the GPLv3. That would be both interesting and cool, though I’d still prefer GPL over BSD.

Labels: gpl, google, webm

Inserted: 2010-06-04 22:58 (1 year, 8 months ago)

1 Comment

1. Francois Marier

The FSF says that yes, it is now just a standard 3-clause BSD:

"Now the copyright license on the software is a totally standard three-clause BSD license, which is clearly compatible with the GPL. The patent license, in turn, provides distributors with permission to exercise all the rights, and meet all the conditions, in the GPL, as required by GPLv2 section 7; and those permissions are consistent with the ones provided by the patent grant in GPLv3 section 11."

http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/googles-updated-webm-license

Inserted: 2010-06-05 04:17 (1 year, 8 months ago)

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