In reply to Howdy_McGee.

If companies are already actively avoiding React due to the patent clause on advice of their legal teams... companies will also avoid using and building anything substantial on top of WordPress for the same reasons.

The excuses some people use to support it by saying companies like Apple have backed down and allow some teams within the company to use React falls apart when you realize that yes... they are letting some teams use it... BUT they aren’t building key products or sites with it. Apple has used it for things like a documentation site for something minor. Inconsequential.

That isn’t the case for how a lot of people use WordPress to create all kinds of types of sites and even applications.

What happens when Company A builds something cool using WordPress. Company B likes it and wants to acquire Company A. But during due diligence their legal department red flags the fact React is present in the WordPress mix... and because (if...) WordPress adopted it for core... Company A built their product with React too because they wanted to use what WordPress is using. Company B than pulls the plug in the acquisition because they own some unrelated patents and legal says no go to the React license because of it.

Another great example of a real world scenario can be found in the Github discussion right here:

https://github.com/facebook/react/issues/10191#issuecomment-316380810

These are real scenario and why the React license issue should not be overlooked or brushed off by the WordPress community.

The silence from the core team and decision makers on this issue in light of the Apache Foundation’s move and the many examples of how the patent clause can be a hinderance to adoption in the discussion surrounding the Apache Foundation’s decision... is deafening.

Why isn’t this being publicly addressed? Why isn’t WordPress publicly backing those in the React community who are pushing for Facebook to make this change?

WordPress is big enough to have some influence. More than a bunch of individual Github developers. Why isn’t it leveraging that influence?

Facebook can license it’s code however it wants. But OS projects like WordPress and other React developers can voice their desire for it to change it and opt to not use it if they do.