Software patents and free software: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 18:03, 4 February 2021

Revision as of 18:03, 4 February 2021

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A patent licence that is [[royalty-free]], or provides a one-time worldwide payment is acceptable. Version 2 of the [[GNU General Public License]] does not allow software to be distributed if that software requires a patent licence that does not "''permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you''".<ref>{{cite web

|url=https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html

|title=GNU General Public License version 2

}}</ref>

The Version 2 of the [[GNU General Public License]] <ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html|title=GNU General Public License version 2}}</ref> of 1991 also says that patents convert free software to proprietary software:

"''Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.''"