Update for CUA Office Public License

[Mitchell Baker]

Hi Everyone

With regard to the MPL there is one new element that probably isn't
well known.  There is a section of the MPL that says who can modify the
MPL.  The 1.0 and 1.1 versions specify that entity as netscape (it had
to be someone).  But with the creation of the Mozilla Foundation that
entity has been changed to the Mozilla Foundation.  I plan to create a
Mozilla 1.2 version shortly to make just this change.  (One might
consider other changes of the license as well, but that's a long
discussion.)  And I assume that changing the entity from Netscape/AOL
to the Mozilla Foundation should be seen as a positive step.

Mitchell



John Cowan wrote:

>Patranun Limudomporn scripsit:
>
>  
>
>>PS. If you want to compare and know what difference between CPL and MPL,
>>just have a look at
>>http://cuaoffice.sourceforge.net/productinfo_cpl_diff.htm
>>    
>>
>
>Thank you for providing this diff.
>
>What it amounts to is that your CPL *is* the MPL 1.1 with the name changed
>and the pointers to Netscape changed to point to you.  While this
>procedure is permitted under the MPL, I wish to strongly discourage
>you from taking this step, for these reasons:
>
>1) The MPL is well understood by many programmers, who will be able
>to tell, simply by seeing that your software is licensed under the MPL,
>exactly what they can and cannot do with it without having to read
>and understand a new and complex license.
>
>2) The MPL has become widely used outside the Mozilla project, just as
>the GPL has become widely used outside Project GNU and the BSD license
>has become widely used outside BSD.  Thus, using the MPL does not in
>any way suggest that you are using Mozilla code or that there is some
>connection between your group and the Mozilla project.
>
>3) It's in everyone's best interest if there are fewer, rather than
>more, open source licenses.  It has often been difficult to convince
>corporate lawyers of this, hence the proliferation at opensource.org;
>nevertheless, standard licenses make for simplicity and uniformity,
>which encourage the easy use and reuse of open-source software.
>
>  
>
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