Constitutional affairs legal affairs

Policy Department C: Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs 
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
 
rationale (pdf): 
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl3-final-rationale.pdf
 

 
Announcement video: 
http://gplv3.fsf.org/static/release/rms_gplv3_launch_high_quality.ogg
 

 
Transcript of announcement video: 
http://gplv3.fsf.org/rms_gplv3_launch_transcript
 

 
FSF’s “Quick Guide to GPLv3” about final license: 
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/quick-guide-gplv3.html
 
 
CONCLUSION 
The GPLv3 process, documented in the foregoing materials, shows how highly specialized 
and economically sensitive law-making can be undertaken in a non-hierarchical and 
cooperative fashion, allowing individuals and powerful commercial organizations equal 
opportunities for participation. FOSS licensing can and should be done, as most forms of 
transitional regulation should be achieved, in multilateral cooperative processes. 
The European Commission was invited to participate in the making of GPLv3. A 
representative of DGInfso attended the initial international conference at MIT on January 
16. 2006, and was invited to join Discussion Committee B. The Commission declined to 
participate, on the ground that it could only participate in government-to-government 
processes, and although other governments (the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, for 
example) were participating, apparently they were not governments of the Commission’s 
level of dignity and importance. It seems appropriate, on the present occasion, to consider 
these events. 
 
 
 

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Workshop: Legal aspects of free and open source software 
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Developing an EU model: the EUPL license 
Patrice-Emmanuel Schmitz, Developer of the EUPL 
 
 
ABSTRACT 
The European Union Public Licence (EUPL) is a free or open source software licence, 
copyrighted by the European Union. It has been drafted by the Commission (under the 
IDAbc and ISA programmes) as from 2005 and launched in January 2007. Everyone can 
use it and at the end of 2012, about 500 projects were licensed under the EUPL. The 
present note analyses the legal aspects of the new version 1.2 of the EUPL, elaborated in 
2013. 
 
CONTENT 
 
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 
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1.
 
MOTIVATION AND HISTORY OF THE EUPL 
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2.
 
RIGHTS GRANTED TO RECIPIENTS BY THE EUPL 
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3.
 
WHAT MAKES THE EUPL SPECIFIC? 
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4.
 
INTEROPERABILITY OF THE EUPL 
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REFERENCES 
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ANNEX: TEXT OF THE EUPL (V1.2 – ENGLISH VERSION) 
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 
The EUPL is the European Union Public Licence, published by the European Commission 
(EC). It has been studied and drafted as from 2005 and launched in January 2007. Until 
June 2013, the sole working version was the multilingual EUPL v1.1 (January 2009). In 
2012, it was used for more than 500 software and non-software projects across Europe. 
The EUPL is a Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) licence. The immediate objective thereof 
was that software produced under the IDA/IDABC/ISA programmes could be licensed by 
the EC, in a way it could be reused, improved and integrated by any recipient. The long 
term strategy is to bring more licensors (mainly from public sector) to follow this example. 
The EUPL is also a share-alike (or “copyleft”)
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 licence resulting from the aim to avoid 
exclusive appropriation of the covered software. The EUPL is a share-alike on both source 
and object code. The EUPL can be used by everyone: European institutions, Member 
States, economic operators and individuals. 
In 2009, the EUPL v1.1 was certified by the leading open source organisation, the OSI 
(Open Source Initiative) as the first and sole “OSI-approved licence” with multilingual 
working value (in 22 languages of the European Union). 
                                                 
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 « Copyleft » or « Share Alike » is the obligation (i.e. in the GPL family of licences, the EUPL, the OSL ) to reuse 
the same licence when redistributing a covered software A, or a derivative of A. 

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Policy Department C: Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs 
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As from 2012, the EC objective is to reinforce its legal tools (including the EUPL) for more 
sharing, reuse and interoperability. If “copyleft” aims to protect against appropriation, 
licence conflicts may also create legal barriers between FOSS communities. Therefore the 
EUPL includes an appendix of “compatible licences” providing interoperability with a list of 
similar licences. As this list (based on a 2006 study) was outdated, and to consider changes 
in the European legal framework a new release of the EUPL (v 1.2) was drafted and 
submitted to public consultation. 
Modifications introduced by the EUPL v1.2 are limited 
: official EU institutions 
denominations were adapted  according to the Lisbon Treaty, provisions are about “the 
Work” (in more general terms), additional agreements may cover a larger scope than just 
services and warranty (i.e. jurisdiction, venue) and interoperability is extended to new 
licences: GPL v3, AGPL v3, LGPL, MPL v2. 
The publication of v1.2 has no impact when software was expressly covered “by the EUPL 
v1.1 only” (current licensors may opt for updating, or not), but v1.2 is compatible with 
v1.1, which can still be used. 
 
1. 
MOTIVATION AND HISTORY OF THE EUPL 
 
KEY FINDINGS 

 
The lack of FOSS licences fully compatible with the European legal framework and 
having a working value in all the European Union languages was the main 
motivation for writing a new European licence. 

 
The decision for publishing the EUPL is the outcome of a maturation process over 
many years. 

 
Writing the EUPL was a collective work coordinated by the Commission. 

 
The EUPL is not used “only” as a licence, but also as a reference for public 
procurement (for ensuring full software distribution rights to the contracting 
authority). 

 
A new version, drafted in March 2013 and planned for publication in June or July, 
will improve interoperability.
 
 
 
1.1
 
EUPL requirements 
From 2001 to 2005 the question was: “How to share EC software and encourage public 
sector to do the same”? No sharing (redistribution for reusing, adapting etc.) can be done 
without a distribution licence. The requirements for this licence were as follow: 
1.
 
A (software) licence granting Free (or Open Source) software freedoms; 
2.
 
Ensuring protection from exclusive software appropriation (therefore being a “share 
alike” or “copyleft” licence); 
3.
 
Working value in all official EU languages (no need for sworn translator in Court); 
4.
 
Checked conformity with European copyright law and terminology; 
5.
 
Coverage of “communication to the public” including Web distribution / Software as a 
Service - SaaS (in such case, the software is not distributed as a downloaded package 
or as a CD-Rom, but as an application that remote users access via Internet); 
6.
 
Clarification of applicable law and competent court, as requested by EU institutions; 

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