# Apache License v2.0 versus the GPL


By Ben Ramsey

Published on February 26, 2004


Rich Bowen mentioned this little "feud" in a [short post](http://www.drbacchus.com/journal/archives/000444.html) on his Web site.  According to the <abbr title="recursive acronym for GNU's Not Unix">GNU</abbr> [web site](http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#GPLIncompatibleLicenses), the [Apache Software License version 2.0](http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0) (ASL 2.0) is listed as being incompatible with the <abbr title="General Public License">GPL</abbr>.  Apache [claims](http://www.apache.org/licenses/GPL-compatibility) they have no clue where this comes from, and they stand by their belief that the ASL 2.0 is, in fact, compatible with the GPL.  Apparently, it is believed that [Slashdot](http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/24/1658225&mode=thread) may be fueling this "inaccurate" perception.

If the ASL 2.0 is compatible with the GPL, then there would be no need to include the [aforementioned exception](/archives/what-the-gpl/) when including ASL 2.0 code in your GPL'ed applications.