OpenLDAP license

Derek Seabury Derek.Seabury at speechworks.com
Thu Apr 12 19:34:30 UTC 2001


> The MPL, for example, explicitly allows software executables to be distributed
> under a license other than the MPL (MPL section 3.6). So it is perfectly possible
> to contemplate, say, a binary Mozilla distribution being distributed under a
> license prohibiting redistribution of the binaries.

This isn't true.  MPL 1.1 section 3.2 states:

3.2. Availability of Source Code.
      Any Modification which You create or to which You contribute must be made
available in Source Code form under the terms of this License

And you removed significant context from section 3.6:

You may distribute the Executable version of Covered Code or ownership rights under
a license of Your choice, which may contain terms different from this License,
provided that You are in compliance with the terms of this License and that the
license for the Executable version does not attempt to limit or alter the
recipient's rights in the Source Code version from the rights set forth in this
License.

> Incidentally, this example is not all that hypothetical. The Netscape 6
> binaries are distributed under a license that is clearly not an
> OSD-compliant license

But the portions that were in open source remain so:

7. USE AND AVAILABILITY OF OPEN SOURCE CODE. Portions of Netscape 6 were created
using source code governed by the Netscape Public License (NPL) and the Mozilla
Public License (MPL). The source code for the portions of Netscape 6 governed by
the NPL and MPL is available from http://www.mozilla.org under those licenses.

So while Netscape 6 is clearly not open source, the open source rights to the
mozilla components and modifications there to are still available.  (Keep in mind
that Netscape also has the right under the Netscape public license to distribute
modified versions of the code they gave to Mozilla in the first place...)


--
Derek.Seabury at SpeechWorks.com
(617)428-4444

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