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Relicensing React, Jest, Flow, and Immutable.js

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Re: Relicensing React, Jest, Flow, and Immutable.js

#81

Post by s73ver_ »

Kilenaitor wrote: post #69
CydeWeys wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the list of packages they're truly open sourcing is intentionally small, then. They're only truly open sourcing the ones that are very popular and that had a huge amount of outcry over the license. That makes it worse.

> That makes it worse. In what way does re-licensing their most popular packages make it worse? It says they're evaluating. Doesn't say no and as demonstrated here it doesn't mean they wont change their mind later.

What more is there to evaluate, though? What is different between React, which did get the relicense, and React Native, which didn't?

Re: Relicensing React, Jest, Flow, and Immutable.js

#82

Post by CydeWeys »

matthewmacleod wrote: post #68
MikeHolman wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Facebook may very well end up in the majority's good graces with this move. Really? They are doing the minimum possible to prevent an exodus from their stack after a public outcry.

There was no sign of an exodus. That’s ludicrously hyperbolic.

Not at all. There was an exodus brewing. For starters:

https://ma.tt/2017/09/on-react-and-wordpress/

https://hacks.hyperspacer.com/app/items/15256532

Re: Relicensing React, Jest, Flow, and Immutable.js

#83

Post by dntrkv »

JamesFM wrote: post #63

Wait, this doesn’t solve anything. They replaced BSD with MIT, which are basically the same license and then they removed any explicit patent grant. So this means the user is actually granted less rights then before. Am I missing something or does this make zero sense?

Yeah, that's why all the upheaval against the patents grant was so fucking stupid.

Re: Relicensing React, Jest, Flow, and Immutable.js

#84

Post by jeeyoungk »

JamesFM wrote: post #63

Wait, this doesn’t solve anything. They replaced BSD with MIT, which are basically the same license and then they removed any explicit patent grant. So this means the user is actually granted less rights then before. Am I missing something or does this make zero sense?

The way I interpret it is, explicit patent license implies _less_:

- Explicit patent license specifies why / how it can be revoked.

- Without an explicit patent license, patent infringement case (by Facebook) against a party that uses Facebook's OSS would be become harder, because one may argue that such grant is implied by Facebook open sourcing the software.

Re: Relicensing React, Jest, Flow, and Immutable.js

#85

Post by kelnos »

discordianfish wrote: post #61

Can someone explain why this is good news? As I understood it, the former license was as permissive but additionally to that included a patent grant?

People were unhappy with the terms of the patent grant: it stated that FB would grant you a license to its related patents, BUT, if you were to sue FB for patent infringement, your license to use the covered software is terminated.

But I very much agree and am puzzled why everyone seems to think this latest move is such a great thing. Removing the patent grant entirely isn't so great.

Re: Relicensing React, Jest, Flow, and Immutable.js

#86

Post by Twirrim »

matthewmacleod wrote: post #68
MikeHolman wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Facebook may very well end up in the majority's good graces with this move. Really? They are doing the minimum possible to prevent an exodus from their stack after a public outcry.

There was no sign of an exodus. That’s ludicrously hyperbolic.

That's a strange claim given how many major projects have appeared on the front page of HN because of it, everything from the Apache foundation to Wordpress.

Re: Relicensing React, Jest, Flow, and Immutable.js

#87

Post by jhgg »

lelandbatey wrote: post #76
jhgg wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt it was related. The wheels to get this in motion must have started months in advanced, probably around the time ASF started advising against this license (labeling at as Category-X [1]) [1] https://www.apache.org/legal/resolved.html#category-x

In a statement from Facebook on August 18th, 33 days ago[0]: We have considered possible changes carefully, but we won't be changing our default license or React's license at this time. We recognize that we may lose some React community members because of this decision. We are sorry for that, but we need to balance our desire to participate in open source with our desire to protect ourselves from costly litigation. G…

If I had to speculate, I'd suspect that even though they reaffirmed the BSD+Patent license publicly, FB probably started exploring the possibility of relicensing the projects shortly after that. Not to say WP saying they wont use react didn't help, but I don't think it was the "tipping" point for them at all.

Legal matters at big companies generally take months to resolve and come to consensus over. I can easily imagine their legal team evaluating all such scenarios that a change in license could hurt them (as they should), and that kind of research isn't something done in haste.

Re: Relicensing React, Jest, Flow, and Immutable.js

#89

Post by sergiotapia »

>Next week, we are going to relicense our open source projects React, Jest, Flow, and Immutable.js under the MIT license.

Case closed. Could not have picked a better license, thank you Facebook. MIT or bust, I try not to use any other types of licenses in products/libraries I choose for work and personal use.

Re: Relicensing React, Jest, Flow, and Immutable.js

#90

Post by joshmanders »

Twirrim wrote: post #86
matthewmacleod wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was no sign of an exodus. That’s ludicrously hyperbolic.

That's a strange claim given how many major projects have appeared on the front page of HN because of it, everything from the Apache foundation to Wordpress.

> everything from the Apache foundation to Wordpress.

Those were the only two.

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