[tahoe-dev] Is TGPPL compatible with Apache license?

Zooko O'Whielacronx zookog at gmail.com
Thu May 16 06:01:35 UTC 2013


On Wed, May 15, 2013 at 5:24 AM, Randall Mason <clashthebunny at gmail.com> wrote:
> This discussion addresses the use after the one year of the TGPPL.  Could somebody confirm if this is true:
>
> The period before the one year you can do anything with it, including releasing complete closed source executables without source code that requires that you eat horse meat while you use it.

I can't confirm that US law, much less the law in your jurisdiction,
allows you to require people to eat horse meat as a condition of them
using your software.

I can confirm that the TGPPL allows you to make a derived work and
redistribute it as a proprietary, no-source-code-available thing (for
up to 12 months).

> Just, after that one year, everything becomes GPL.

Not *quite*. It is still licensed under the TGPPL. The TGPPL just
requires that you grant TGPPL-rights to the people who use your
software (within 12 months) as a condition of you using the TGPPL'ed
software. So it has a lot of similarities with the GPL.

(Also, Tahoe-LAFS and zfec are each available under the GPL *instead
of* under the TGPPL, if you prefer that.)

>  If your legal department is okay with a 1 year head start on the competition, then you are also good to go.

I think that's up to the executive department, not the legal
department! My legal department is non-existent, and my executive
department is me, so my company really likes this idea.

Regards,

Zooko



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