News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Messenger.com Now 50% Converted to Reason by moron4hire on Sunday September 10, 2017 @10:06AM (#15212258)
Doesn't matter. You're licenses to all of Facebook's software gets revoked for any patent claim against Facebook.
Re:Messenger.com Now 50% Converted to Reason by Lazare on Sunday September 10, 2017 @10:33AM (#15212352)
> Doesn't matter. You're licenses to all of Facebook's software gets revoked for any patent claim against Facebook.

Incorrect. Your license to their patents gets revoked. Hence why the React license "issue" is basically a paper tiger. (See, eg, https://medium.com/@dwalsh.sdlr/react-facebook-and-the-revok...)

Re:Messenger.com Now 50% Converted to Reason by yawaramin on Sunday September 10, 2017 @11:18AM (#15212541)
> Your license to their patents gets revoked.

That's not my reading. From the patent grant:

> Facebook ... grants to each recipient of the Software ... license under any Necessary Claims, to make, have made, use, sell, offer to sell, import, and otherwise transfer the Software.

This doesn't say that they're granting you a license to their patents, just their software. In fact, about patents they go beyond to say:

> ... no license is granted under Facebook’s rights in any patent claims that are infringed by (i) modifications to the Software made by you or any third party or (ii) the Software in combination with any software or other technology.

IMO that's pretty clearly saying you don't actually have any license to their patents. Regarding the termination clause:

> The license granted hereunder will terminate....

It seems pretty clear the only license granted hereunder is the one to use the software; in other words if you sue FB for patent infringement you lose the right to use React/Reason.

Re:Messenger.com Now 50% Converted to Reason by Lazare on Sunday September 10, 2017 @06:13PM (#15214571)
> That's not my reading.

Literally every lawyer who has looked at that license agrees that your interpretation is wrong.

Also, licenses like this have standard language; if you're even slightly familiar with how such language is interpreted, you'd realise that this represents two independent licenses to two different things, which terminate in different cases.

Also, Facebook has publically explained what the language means to them, and yes, that would be legally binding on them.

Plus:

> IMO that's pretty clearly saying you don't actually have any license to their patents.

Right, a document titled "additional grant of patent rights" that "grants to each recipient of the Software [...] a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, irrevocable (subject to the termination provision below) license under any [claim of a patent owned by Facebook that is necessarily infringed by the Software standing alone], isn't a grant of patent rights?

I'm sorry, but literally everything you've said is wrong. I highly suggest you read the analysis of an actual lawyer, such as the one I linked in the comment you're replying to, because you appear to have no clue what you're talking about.

Re:Messenger.com Now 50% Converted to Reason by yawaramin on Sunday September 10, 2017 @08:04PM (#15214979)
OK, I'm happy to be corrected on this. In any case Reason is something I highly recommend everyone to check out.
Re:Messenger.com Now 50% Converted to Reason by tzs on Sunday September 10, 2017 @01:05PM (#15213097)
According to Facebook's "Open Source License FAQ" [1]:

> Does termination of the additional patent grant in the Facebook BSD+Patents license cause the copyright license to also terminate?

> No.

[1] https://code.facebook.com/pages/850928938376556

Re:Messenger.com Now 50% Converted to Reason by moron4hire on Sunday September 10, 2017 @05:20PM (#15214370)
The FAQ is not a binding contract. There is no reason to believe anything outside of the license itself, and the license sais you'll lose it if you file a patent infringement claim.

People lie. It happens. Facebook is not exactly the most noble company in the world.

Re:Messenger.com Now 50% Converted to Reason by tzs on Sunday September 10, 2017 @05:31PM (#15214414)
Promissory estoppel.