Mozilla Public License 2 Alpha 3; request for early review prior to formal submission for approval

[Wilson, Andrew]

John Cowan wrote:

>Wilson, Andrew scripsit:
>
>> So the question is, Alice releases a program under MPL 2.  Bob takes
>> Alice's program, combines it with GPL code, and releases the
>> combination under GPL.  Carol receives the sources from Bob
>> and makes improvements to portions originally contributed by Alice.
>> What license applies to Carol's improvements?  May Alice take
>> Carol's patches and, without any additional license,
>> apply them to her MPL code base?
>
> The MPL does not spread beyond the source files and Modifications of
> them to which it was attached.  So Alice can incorporate Carol's patches
> to any file that Bob didn't touch.  However, if Bob makes Modifications
> to Alice's Compatible Covered Software and releases them under the GPL,
> those Modifications can't be backported to Alice's version, whether
> through Carol or not.

MPL does not spread beyond file boundaries, but GPL does.
So, apparently the only license Carol has to the entire
combination, as distributed by Bob, is GPL.
When Carol distributes her modified version of Bob's program,
it, too, must be under GPL.  Under this interpretation
Alice is out of luck reaching in to Carol's version to backport Carol's
Modifications to Alice's MPL licensed tree,
absent an additional permission from Carol.

I'm raising this question now to give Luis & co. an opportunity
to get out in front of it, if they so choose.

Andy Wilson
Intel open source technology center