[copyleft-next] Compatibility with Eclipse Public License.

Tom Marble tmarble at info9.net
Tue Aug 7 00:07:20 UTC 2012


All:

As Richard brought to my attention on identi.ca [0] there
appears to be interest in making CLN (copyleft.next) compatible
with EPL [1].

This is certainly an interesting goal and I'm wondering how the
to comply with EPL in a CLN combined work?

Historically this seems to have been "impossible" with GPL.
AFAICT the incompatibility rises from the EPL choice of venue [2]
which makes EPL not GPL compatible.  Interestingly there seem
to be claims that GPL is not EPL compatible [3][4][5] yet
they all seem to hinge reflexively on the former case.
Thus if EPL is CLN compatible then is there any stronger
assertion we can make to assure that CLN is EPL compatible
(specifically that a combined work under CLN is possible)?

If such a solution is found it would give CLN another powerful
advantage (along with deflating Proprietary Relicensing [6])
to combat the EPL reflexive assertions and (optionally via ws-supp)
go further by copylefting network services (so-called "Web Services").

This would seem to be significant as it is not clear a
developer today could deploy an EPL work (e.g. Clojure) combined
with copyleft network services (e.g. under AGPLv3+) while
complying with both licenses.

At the risk of adding a second issue to this mail I am
concerned that the "at no charge" qualification in ws-supp
creates a loophole for additional albeit gratis conditions.
Especially in the land of network services we are becoming
increasingly aware of draconian and even abusive "Terms of Service"
in exchange for gratis offerings. CLN seems to want
to make conveying Software Freedom unconditional.

Respectfully,

--Tom

[0] https://identi.ca/notice/95887462
[1] https://gitorious.org/copyleft-next/copyleft-next/blobs/master/license-drafts/copyleft-next#line228
[2] https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#EPL
[3] http://www.eclipse.org/legal/eplfaq.php#GPLCOMPATIBLE
[4] https://mmilinkov.wordpress.com/2010/04/06/epl-gpl-commentary/
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eclipse_Public_License#Compatibility
[6] https://gitorious.org/copyleft-next/copyleft-next/blobs/master/license-drafts/copyleft-next#line109


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