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I didn't read the whole article, so my comment is about the PATENTS file and not the article. The situation isn't just about React. The PATENTS file is found in many repos, and it's leaking into the entire open source ecosystem due to dependencies. Those kinds of conditions should not be added to Free software licenses.


React licence introduces unwanted licence complexity. If I make an OS project that uses React what is my licence?


Your license is still whatever your license is.

The PATENTS file is an additional patent grant. The BSD license contains no patent grant, it's just a copyright license.

You can even distribute React as part of an Apache2 project. The Apache2 patent grant explicitly only covers relevant patents the contributors hold.


And possibly also a restriction. It appears to say that if Facebook infringes your patents, you can't defend your patents.




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