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.
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
14
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”)
30
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.
Policy Department C: Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs
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14
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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