AL2 vs BSD and AL2 vs LGPL

Hi David,

I'll try (this is hard for me, when it comes to licenses) to reply in a
few sentences.

AL2 vs BSD : Both are very permissive.  Mostly, you can do whatever you
want with the code, even license it under a different license, and
distribute it in binary form only, as long as you also provide the
copyright and license notices.  Both of these licenses are compatible to
many other free and open source software licenses.

There are a few notable differences, though:
- The BSD text is quite imprecise, e.g.  "... in the documentation
  and/or other materials..." : What if there is no documentation nor
  other materials?  Are you then relieved of the obligations of the
  BSD license?
- The BSD license is only a Copyright license.  The AL2 license
  explicitly covers 3 aspects of intellectual property, namely:
  copyright, patents, and trade marks.
- The BSD is GPL compatible.  The AL2 was designed to be GPL compatible,
  but the FSF thinks that it is not.  The FSF is working on the GPL 3.0
  which should be AL2 compatible.  See:
  http://www.apache.org/licenses/GPL-compatibility.html
  http://gplv3.fsf.org/

AL2 vs LGPL : Mainly, LGPL is a "weak copyleft" license.  Mainly, you
can link the LGPL code with other code and distribute binaries, as long
as you also redistribute the source code of the LGPL part.  The AL2 has
no source code redistribution requirement; it is much more "permissive".
 Many people (including some at the FSF!) think that the LGPL is
impractical for embedded systems.


I like the fact that the AL2 covers various aspects of intellectual
property (IP) in a clear and concise vocabulary. You'll find a
definition of IP at:
 http://strategis.gc.ca/sc_mrksv/cipo/welcome/welcom-e.html


Hoping this was short enough.  Couldn't make it shorter. :-)

Etienne

David Bélanger wrote:
> Could someone summarize the differences between:
> AL2 vs BSD or AL2 vs LGPL
> in a few sentences.

-- 
Etienne M. Gagnon, Ph.D.            http://www.info2.uqam.ca/~egagnon/
SableVM:                                       http://www.sablevm.org/
SableCC:                                       http://www.sablecc.org/

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