Dear all, GPL v2 and v3 have anti-patent clauses that says, in effect, that if anyone arranges a patent license for distribution of the code, they have to arrange that license for all possible downstream recipients of the code and derivatives.
I would like to take this one step further so that the anti-patent clause covers use as well as distribution. I propose the license below, a BSD derivative. The aim, like GPL, is to drive a wedge between the software patent business and open software and the hope is to encourage the neutralisation (i.e. licensing for all) of critical patents that threaten popular free software. I am aware that the clause proposed only covers third-party patents: it might be worth rewording or including a clause to cover patents owned by the user/re-distributor themselves. I hope this makes sense. Please let me know if (a) there is an existing license that does this and (b) whether this would qualify as true open source. Best regards, John Funnell Copyright (c) <year>, <copyright holder> All rights reserved. Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met: [ three standard new-BSD conditions not shown here] * No patents are licensed from any third party in respect of redistribution or use of this software or its derivatives unless the patent license is arranged to permit free use and distribution by all. THIS SOFTWARE IS... [standard BSD disclaimer not shown here] _______________________________________________ License-discuss mailing list License-discuss@opensource.org http://projects.opensource.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss