[License-review] ESA-PL Weak 2.3

Carsten Gerlach cgerlach at tcilaw.de
Sun May 6 13:48:14 UTC 2018


On 05.03.2018 12:22, Patrice-Emmanuel Schmitz wrote:
> Another question to Carsten Gerlach:
> 
> The “weak” ("reasonable" or "moderated" sounds better) copyleft
> ESA-PL_Weak provides the right to (re-)distribute the Software and/or
> Modifications under a compatible licence. 
> Annex A lists only two licences: the GNU GPL v2 and later and the CeCILL
> v2 or later.
> 
> Questions:
> 1. Why not the GNU/AGPL, knowing that the ESA-PL_Strong covers SaaS
> (point 3.4 which differs from tha ESA-PL_Weak)?

The AGPL could be added to the list of compatible licenses, but was not
considered by the ESA licensing board due to its limited practical
relevance in the space industry. Generally, the list of compatible
licenses was to be kept as short as possible and based on the prior
experience of the agency.

> 2. Why not the EUPL v1.2, which should be considered since ESA is
> "quasi" a specific European Agency (even if some members differ),
> knowing that CeCILL v2.1 is compatible with the EUPL (and the reciprocate)? 
> NB: in addition, the EUPL V1.2 authorises specific agreements concerning
> applicable law and arbitration, where CeCILL refers to the French law
> only and to the court of Paris

See above. Additionally, since CeCILLv2.1 permits the license switch to
the EuPL, it was felt that no explicit permission was necessary.

Kind regards, Carsten



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