6 ms·

tldr; Author doesn't like writing in javascript and fears that Facebook may some day decide to stop supporting React Native.

• sn0v 10y ago
  It'd be nice to have a TL;DR bot on HN, at least for the more clickbait-titled articles (not saying this is one).
• ChrisLTD 10y ago
  Ariel also doesn't like this clause in the React license: The license granted hereunder will terminate, automatically and without notice, if you (or any of your subsidiaries, corporate affiliates or agents) initiate directly or indirectly, or take a direct financial interest in, any Patent Assertion: (i) against Facebook or any of its subsidiaries or corporate affiliates, (ii) against any party if such Patent Assertion arises in whole or in part from any software, technology, product or service of Facebook or any of its subsidiaries or corporate affiliates, or (iii) against any party relating to the Software.
  • hackerboos 10y ago
    That's in all of the React licenses.
    • ChrisLTD 10y ago
      Thanks, I updated my original comment.
  • sebastianconcpt 10y ago
    That alone makes it a non-starter
    • Lazare 10y ago
      Why? (Honest question.)
      • qwertyuiop924 10y ago
        Because it gives Facebook legal leverage over your company.
        • Lazare 10y ago
          How, exactly? My company doesn't have any patents; what legal leverage does Facebook have over us? (Trick question, the answer is "zero".)
          • deleted 10y ago
            [deleted]
          • qwertyuiop924 10y ago
            Maybe if your company's very small, but if your company is large enough, you almost certainly will have patents.
          • Sanddancer 10y ago
            One of the first questions I would ask is what is an indirect assertion of a patent in this situation? If you get shaken down by a patent troll for a patent related to React stuff, would that be considered an indirect assertion? After all, you're making a statement there that React is violating some patent. While I can agree with patent severance clauses, this one just feels full of real ugliness that would drive a lawyer crazy.
        • pluma 10y ago
          You mean unlike every company that is behind any other project you are relying on that doesn't come with an explicit patent grant? In other words you have no MIT or BSD licensed dependencies, or in fact no open source dependencies that don't either come with an explicit non-revocable patent grant and aren't licensed under Apache 2.0, GPLv3 or MPL 2.0 (all of which by the way still terminate the patent grant if you sue over infringement of patents within the licensed code itself). Lucky you?
          • 10y ago
  • ianl_person 10y ago
    To my reading, there are two separate items: a copyright license and a patent grant. - The former allows you to make copies of the software - The latter protects you from Facebook claiming patent infringement arising from the use of React Native (aka, Necessary Claims). It doesn't necessarily mean they have such patents but if they do, you are protected. So if the reciprocity clause in Facebook's patent grant is a problem, all recent MIT licensed software out there without a patent grant would also be off limits.
    • Lazare 10y ago
      Yep. And depending on the details of the concern, so would an Apache or Mozilla licensed project, since they have explicit grants with termination clauses only slightly narrower than React's.