Facebook recants patent clause on React

Don’t mind us as we pull out our broken record player: It seems as though a major story this fall has gotten another chapter. In another twist to the tale stemming from the WordPress Gutenberg visual editor beta release, the JavaScript library in which it was originally written – Facebook’s React – is no longer having to be replaced with a inferior or less popular library.

After a decision to change Javascript libraries was first made last week in light of Facebook enacting it’s patent clause over React, it appears this wasn’t a wholly kosher move by the social media giant.  News broke this week that the prohibitory usage of React did not meet industry standards and thus, due to pressure from the industry in question, was adjusted. This will lead to new licensing for React and potentially (perhaps a more fitting word is “hopefully”) an earlier release of Gutenberg.

This most recent news is just the newest chapter of a story we have been following eagerly. Last week, when we wrote of Facebook protecting the patent of their React library, we were hoping the tone of it had a bit of a to be continued feel. The story has been continued; quicker than we imagined, too.

In this latest chapter, and as a result of that industry pressure, Facebook took a step back from their overprotection of React. Moving forward, releases of it will be available under the far laxer MIT license instead of their BSD + Patents license. Licensing under MIT follows open source principles, meaning React is available for use without Facebook pulling the rug out from under those who chose to do so.

For us and the WordPress community, this is a victory. At least a pair of them spoke to this, with Matt Mullenweg and Ahmad Awais voicing their pleasure. This can also be seen as a victory for the world of webpage development as the movement towards open source continues to grow, not to mention greater intrigue surrounding the highly anticipated release of the Gutenberg visual editor.