Read and share online: https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/recent-licensing-updates

Dear Ruben Safir,

We recently published a number of updates to our licensing
materials. While we generally post individual announcements for these
types of important changes, there were so many in such a short span
that we needed to combine them all in one place. We recently added two
licenses to our list of Various Licenses and Comments about Them,
updated our article on License Compatibility and Relicensing, and
added a new entry to the Frequently Asked Questions about the GNU
Licenses. What follows is a brief rundown on those changes, and
how you can learn more about free software licensing.

Commons Clause

We added the Commons Clause to our list of nonfree licenses. Not
a stand-alone license in and of itself, it is meant to be added to an
existing free license to prevent using the work commercially,
rendering the work nonfree. It's particularly nasty given that the
name, and the fact that it is attached to pre-existing free licenses,
may make it seem as if the work is still free software.

If a previously existing project that was under a free license adds
the Commons Clause, users should work to fork that program and
continue using it under the free license. If it isn't worth forking,
users should simply avoid the package. We are glad to see that in the
case of Redis modules using the Commons Clause, people are stepping
up to maintain free versions.

The Fraunhofer FDK AAC license

We recently added the Fraunhofer FDK AAC license to our list of
licenses. This is a free license, incompatible with any version of the
GNU General Public License (GNU GPL), but also contains a potential
trap. While Fraunhofer provides a copyright license here, they
explicitly decline to grant any patent license. In fact, they direct
users to contact them to obtain a patent license. Users should act
with caution in determining whether they feel comfortable using works
under this license.

License Compatibility

In September we added a new section to our article on License
Compatibility and Relicensing, addressing combinations of
code. This new section helps you to simplify the picture when dealing
with a project that combines code under multiple compatible
licenses. If complying with one license necessarily means compliance
with the other, then you can reduce the question of complying with
both in the following manner:

"[Y]ou start with a list of all the pertinent licenses. Then you can
delete from the list any license which is subsumed by another in the
list.

"We say that license A subsumes license B when compliance with license
A implies compliance with license B."

The updated section then goes on to list various examples of this in
action. The list may be expanded in the future to cover more cases.

Translated Code

Finally, there is a new addition to our Frequently Asked Questions
about the GNU Licenses, with an entry explaining what the GNU GPL
says about translating code into another programming language. In
short, since copyright law treats a translation as a modified version
of a work, translating a program into another programming language has
the same consequences as creating a modified version.

How to learn more

These updates touch upon quite a few different resources that we make
available, but that's only the start of the materials we provide that
can help you to understand free software licensing. For an overview of
the resources available, visit us at https://www.fsf.org/licensing,
or if you have questions, you can ask the Compliance Lab directly by
emailing licensing@fsf.org. The Compliance Lab is our resource on
free software licensing, providing materials and expertise to free
software users and developers everywhere. Please help us keep this
vital program going strong: help more users keep informed by asking
them to sign up for the Free Software Supporter.

Sincerely,

Donald Robertson
Licensing & Compliance Manager