On 08/07/2012 12:39 PM, Luis Villa wrote:
On Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 9:22 AM, Richard Fontana
<fontana(a)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:
1) It's a relatively weak copyleft; and
2) 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