Workshop: Legal aspects of free and open source software
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23
Figure 4 Exception to the exception
It is therefore possible that the "daughter project" DELTA:
1.
will be (by decision of its licensor and because code under these licences (EPL, LGPL
or MPL) was reused) distributed under one of the more moderately copyleft licences
listed as compatible (EPL, LGPL or MPL);
2.
that some code from DELTA will be combined or forked in a "grand-daughter"
project OMEGA, and;
3.
that the OMEGA licensor will decide to distribute its executable version under
proprietary terms.
Even in such a case (that has never occurred in real world so far) the portions of the DELTA
code present in OMEGA will stay covered by their licence (EPL, LGPL or MPL): these files
must stay FOSS and publicly available as source code, but the copyleft is limited at file
level according to the provision of these licences (meaning without a pretention for viral
effect impacting the rest of the OMEGA project).
This possible exception has made some analysts to declare that the EUPL "
gives recipients
ways to relicense the work under the terms of other selected licenses, and some of those
only provide a weaker copyleft. Thus, developers can't rely on this license to provide a
strong copyleft”
37
.
This point is of course – at least theoretically – founded. But we have to see it in a context,
and temper it:
-
the term “relicense” is especially ambiguous and not appropriate, as previously stated.
-
Some compatible licences provide a weaker “copyleft” (LGPL, MPL, EPL): it does not
mean that they are weak or permissive: they are “copyleft”, but at file level, without
pretention to provide a viral effect.
-
Providing a “strong copyleft” is not a business ideal in an interoperable world, where
multiple licences coexist. Furthermore, the notion of “strong copyleft” is especially
unclear, debated and has not been confirmed by European case law.
37
FSF – op. cit.
Policy Department C: Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs
____________________________________________________________________________________________
24
4.5.
Conclusion
The above series of example illustrate that the EUPL
-
protects effectively the covered code from exclusive appropriation by a third party;
-
make some part the covered code reusable in OTHER free software projects (without
re-licensing the original project);
-
is not hostile/does not try to prevent the reuse of some code of these other projects
by the software industry.
REFERENCES
The EUPL v1.1 – text of the licence, in 22 languages – Joinup.eu.
https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/software/page/eupl
Guidelines for using the EUPL
https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/software/page/eupl/eupl-
guidelines
Guidelines on public procurement of Open Source Software
https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/elibrary/document/guideline-public-procurement-open-
source-software
Spanish Royal decree 4/2010 (English version) see in particular article 16
http://administracionelectronica.gob.es/recursos/pae_000002017.pdf
The EUPL in Italy:
www.eupl.it
“Experience of introducing the EUPL in ISTAT” (Carlo Vacari 2010) presentation slides
(in Italian) :
http://fr.slideshare.net/vaccaricarlo/introduzione-eupl-in-istat
Malta public sector software distribution policy
https://www.mita.gov.mt/MediaCenter/PDFs/1_GMICT_P_0097_Open_Source_Software
_v2.0.p
d
f
Guide for the procurement of standard-based ICT / Elements of Good Practice –
(European Economics 23 March 2012) -
http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/ssai/docs/study-
action23/d3-guidelines-finaldraft2012-03-22.pdf
ISA standard “Sharing and reusing clauses”
http://joinup.ec.europa.eu/elibrary/document/isa_share_reuse_d_2-1-standard-
sharing-and-re-using-clauses-contracts
ANNEX: TEXT OF THE EUPL (V1.2 – ENGLISH VERSION)
European Union Public Licence V. 1.2
EUPL © the European Union 2007, 2013
This European Union Public Licence (the “EUPL”) applies to the Work (as defined below)
which is provided under the terms of this Licence. Any use of the Work, other than as
authorised under this Licence is prohibited (to the extent such use is covered by a right of
the copyright holder of the Work).
The Original Work is provided under the terms of this Licence when the Licensor (as defined
below) has placed the following notice immediately following the copyright notice for the
Original Work:
Licensed under the EUPL
or has expressed by any other means his willingness to license under the EUPL.
Workshop: Legal aspects of free and open source software
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25
1. Definitions
In this Licence, the following terms have the following meaning:
- The Licence: this Licence.
- The Original Work: the work or software distributed and/or communicated by the Licensor
under this Licence, available as Source Code and also as Executable Code as the case may
be.
- Derivative Works: the works or software that could be created by the Licensee, based
upon the Original Work or modifications thereof. This Licence does not define the extent of
modification or dependence on the Original Work required in order to classify a work as a
Derivative Work; this extent is determined by copyright law applicable in the country
mentioned in Article 15.
- The Work: the Original Work and/or its Derivative Works.
- The Source Code: the human-readable form of the Work which is the most convenient for
people to study and modify.
- The Executable Code: any code which has generally been compiled and which is meant to
be interpreted by a computer as a program.
- The Licensor: the natural or legal person that distributes and/or communicates the Work
under the Licence.
- Contributor(s): any natural or legal person who modifies the Work under the Licence, or
otherwise contributes to the creation of a Derivative Work.
- The Licensee or “You”: any natural or legal person who makes any usage of the Work
under the terms of the Licence.
- Distribution and/or Communication: any act of selling, giving, lending, renting,
distributing, communicating, transmitting, or otherwise making available, on-line or off-
line, copies of the Work or providing access to its essential functionalities at the disposal of
any other natural or legal person.
2. Scope of the rights granted by the Licence
The Licensor hereby grants You a world-wide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, sub-licensable
licence to do the following, for the duration of copyright vested in the Original Work:
-
use the Work in any circumstance and for all usage,
-
reproduce the Work,
-
modify the Original Work, and make Derivative Works based upon the Work,
-
communicate to the public, including the right to make available or display the Work or
copies thereof to the public and perform publicly, as the case may be, the Work,
-
distribute the Work or copies thereof,
-
lend and rent the Work or copies thereof,
-
sub-license rights in the Work or copies thereof.
Those rights can be exercised on any media, supports and formats, whether now known or
later invented, as far as the applicable law permits so.
In the countries where moral rights apply, the Licensor waives his right to exercise his
moral right to the extent allowed by law in order to make effective the licence of the
economic rights here above listed.
The Licensor grants to the Licensee royalty-free, non exclusive usage rights to any patents
held by the Licensor, to the extent necessary to make use of the rights granted on the
Work under this Licence.
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