The WebM Open Source License has been updated. This update comes after much concern had been raised about the use of certain language related to patent protection and its compatibility with other popular free software licenses, such as the GPL 2 & 3.
It’s encouraging & refreshing to see a project like WebM respond to the community’s concerns about this and other issues, and it is also a sign of the perhaps unnecessary complexity inherent in copyright and patent law that makes putting together a free software license such a complicated task.
It also puts further into question the choice of having a unique license that overlaps so much with existing ones, and this change brings the WebM license much closer to a simple BSD-style license in terms of copyright by decoupling patents from copyright itself. The WebM Project now claims that their license is no longer a new one, which, if true (We’ll save that verdict for the lawyers and those more fluent in legalese), is very much a more favorable decision.
We welcome this license change and look forward to the continued receptiveness of the WebM project to the community’s concerns and input. The updated license can be viewed on the WebM license page.