Fedora to disallow CC0-licensed code

Posted Jul 28, 2022 10:55 UTC (Thu) by bpearlmutter (subscriber, #14693)
Parent article: Fedora to disallow CC0-licensed code

How does this differ from BSD?

$ egrep --count -i patent /usr/share/common-licenses/BSD 
0

Fedora to disallow CC0-licensed code

Posted Jul 28, 2022 11:55 UTC (Thu) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link] (2 responses)

> How does this differ from BSD?

Not explicitly mentioning patents != explicitly not licensing patents

https://lwn.net/Articles/902667/

Fedora to disallow CC0-licensed code

Posted Jul 29, 2022 0:01 UTC (Fri) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link] (1 responses)

Isn't BSD very similar to MIT?

As the linked article by Scott Peterson says, by explicitly granting the right to "use the software WITHOUT RESTRICTION", the licensor is saying "you don't need a patent licence from me".

Yes the licensor can't be held to the terms of the licence over their own software, but equally they can't change the terms for the licensee without good reason. And suing downstream would be a pretty blatant renege on "without restriction".

Cheers,
Wol

Fedora to disallow CC0-licensed code

Posted Jul 29, 2022 10:42 UTC (Fri) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link]

> As the linked article by Scott Peterson says, by explicitly granting the right to "use the software WITHOUT RESTRICTION", the licensor is saying "you don't need a patent licence from me".

Indeed. Without actual court test this legal theory, like any legal theory, would stay purely theoretical, but it's very plausible theory and chances are high that it will hold in court.

This is completely different from explicit refusal to grant you patent license along with the code.