Startups should not use React

"Disclaimer: As with everything in law, I reserve the right to throw every word out like yesterday’s newspaper if presented with new information or a recent decision by a non-caffeinated judge. Hubris and the law make for bad bedfellows. If you have information or arguments that I didn’t consider, make them below! I will update this blog if any new information changes my opinion."

But the lawsuit would be against those alternatives directly and not my company

We are explicitly talking about a situation in which you lose the right to use patented technology in React because you sue Facebook for violating your patents. But if you don’t use React, you don’t have a license to use those patents at all in the first place. You’re in no worse position than you were.

I didn't stalk you: you include a link in your HN profile to your Github page, I only clicked on it. Consider removing the link if you don't want people visiting your Github profile, and learning what you engage in.

Many of your statements are imprecise/incorrect.

1. Patent grants are good. Many licenses, including ASLv2, MPL, CDDL, not only include a patent grant, but also a “weak patent retaliation” clause. A minor reprimand if you adopt a project and then decide to sue THAT VERY SAME PROJECT for patent infringement. That’s a pretty fair deal. Some licenses like CDDL are quite relaxed, e.g. they even give you a 60 days grace period after you initiate the litigation to migrate away from the software under dispute. Others like MPL not only remove the patent grant, but also the copyright license as well — which depending on the project could be assumable.

2. Facebook could’ve done the same (simply by adopting ASLv2, like they did with RocksDB when they wanted to allow Apache Cassandra to use it), but they decided to introduce a “strong patent retaliation” clause, where they protect all of their patents by immediately revoking all current (hypothetical) or future patent grants of ALL SOFTWARE with that license (which also includes Jest, immutable.js, draft.js, Flow, Infer, etc.).

3. As I said in my second article, aside from Palantir, no other corporation has adopted Facebook’s “BSD-3 + strong patents retaliation clause” since 2014 (when it was first released) – based on my examination, which I linked to in my previous comment. Meanwhile, FB claims wide adoption of this license would decrease “meritless patent litigation”. If it were true, companies should be running towards this license model. So how do you explain that no one else (aside from Palantir) has adopted it, over the course of 3 years? Something doesn’t add up. I’m sure they will explain at some point.

4. You do seem to complain a lot about my style. But with regards to content, aside from you trying to lecture me in several areas where you make mistakes yourself, your main point seems to be that the scenarios I paint are conjecture. Well, yes. They are conjecture. You see: people need to imagine possible outcomes in order to take decisions and act accordingly. If it had already happened, it wouldn’t be a blog post, it would be news.

5. Yes, I am an ASF contributor. I use GNU, ASLv2, MIT, MPL, CDDL-licensed software, and that also makes me versed (not an expert, of course) in the licensing field. I am impartial to licenses as long as they work for me and the purpose of the software I'm building. Is there anything wrong with that? Please stop making camps in your head. There is no React vs. ASF conspiracy nor battle taking place. Everyone is entitled to have their own opinion, and to study the consequences from their own angles.

6. Large companies who have adopted React, like Amazon, Microsoft, Airbnb, etc. have enough manpower to migrate away if they need to file a patent infringement lawsuit against Facebook. For them, adopting React could be a good deal. Startups don’t tend to enjoy that amount of manpower; I have already answered this several times.

I could be wrong in many of my statements, I acknowledge that. But the truth is that the license creates legal provisions whereby the scenarios I envisioned would be possible, even if several conditions would have to align. Hence, what is left? Trust that FB won’t go after you? Goodwill statements from FB’s team? Sorry, mister, but those are worthless. Especially when there are legal terms mediating.

We could keep going on forever, but my time is finite so I’m going to close this discussion with you here. Good luck!

Edit 1: changed the order of some points for better flow. Edit 2: minor changes in PS.

P.S.: BTW - you will find that OSS developers who are affiliated to some Foundation (Mozilla, Apache, Eclipse, etc.) tend to be versed in licensing, without needing to be lawyers. Everybody can understand the terms. You only have to be a lawyer if you're going to enforce them.