On Tue, 2005-05-31 at 17:13 +0000, Dago Bert wrote: > Hey, > > i would like to use the "Jakarta Commons CLI" project under the "Apache > License" in my project under the "Gnu Public License". Specifically i am > using a jar file from that project in mine and would like to distribute my > project together with that jar file. Is this possible from a legal point of > view? >
Note: all the following information is *unofficial*; I am not a lawyer and all that. The ASF has no problems with you combining apache licensed code with GPL code. But of course you cannot distribute the result under the APL, as GPL code can only be redistributed under the GPL. And *according to the FSF* you can't distribute the combination under the GPL because the APL has a clause related to revoking user permissions to use the work if they sue claiming patents on other parts of the work. This renders the APL "non-free" according to the GPL (see clause 3 of the apache license). So at the moment, you cannot legally combine APL and GPL code. If you own the copyright on all the code, then I think you could release it under a "GPL with exceptions" license which states that linking with APL code is ok. But I don't know if your code could then legally be included as part of a larger GPL'd work. The FSF and ASF are working on making the APL and GPL compatible; both sides *want* people to be able to combine APL and GPL code as you are trying to do. But anything involving lawyers goes very slowly... Regards, Simon --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
