On 08/07/2012 12:39 PM, Luis Villa wrote:
On Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 9:22 AM, Richard Fontana fontana@sharpeleven.org wrote:
Luis, what's your take (if any) on MPL/EPL compatibility?
Same problem (inclusion of individual MPL file in an EPL work is problematic.)
To me this just re-states the problem. What is an "EPL work", and when could an individual MPL file be included in it? I can tell you how I'd approach that situation myself. I'd assume, based on cultural hints coming from the Eclipse Foundation (and other prominent users of the EPL) and a textual hint in the EPL itself (bearing in mind its history), that it is nonproblematic to include an individual MPL file in -- or perhaps I should say juxtaposed with -- a set of files that are all otherwise licensed under the EPL. If someone on the EPL side complained, I'd take another look, but I've never encountered such a complaint (I am not sure I have dealt with MPL/EPL juxtaposition -- as you say the communities don't overlap much -- but I have dealt with LGPL/EPL juxtaposition which you might suppose would raise even more of an issue).
I'd add that this is less difficult for MPL 2 because:
- It's a relatively weak copyleft; and
- to the extent we're strong (e.g., the patent clause, which I still
need to discuss on this list), the requirement that you be combining with another work under the alternative license mitigates the risk somewhat of someone saying "ah, I'm using under this weaker patent clause, so I can sue you with impunity."
I haven't pushed this to gitorioius yet, but I have a draft EPL compatibility provision that says:
You may Distribute a Derived Work that includes files licensed under the Eclipse Public License 1.0 ("EPL"), provided that such Distribution complies with the requirements of the EPL. The requirement stated in [Distribution: General](b) of This License shall be narrowed in scope solely to the extent necessary to facilitate this permission.
A problem with this approach, which is the only one feasible I think, is it has that unfortunate "stet license cleverness" quality to it.
- RF