As part of the Firebird open source database project, we created a close derivative of the Mozilla Public License V1.1 which we call the "Initial Developer's Public License." The license follows the instructions in the MPL V1.1 for creating derivative works based on the MPL. The modifications consist of eliminating the right of Netscape to create new versions of the license which may be applied to the Firebird code and documenting that change. Our goals are to
a) Allow the use of the Firebird project code, in whole or
in part, in open source and commercial applications b) Require that the source code for modifications to the
Firebird code and interfaces from the Firebird code to
new code be published under the same conditions as the
Firebird code if the modifications or extensions are
distributed beyond the organization which modified or
extended the code. c) Make no reference to an originating authority for the
license(e.g. Netscape, the Regents of University of
California, IBM, Lucent ...)Before I engage an intellectual property lawyer to prepare the analysis required in step three of the license approval process, I'd like to ask two questions.
1) Has an equivalent license been approved already? I read the approved licenses but IANAL and may well have missed one.
2) Is a full legal analysis necessary for those sections which are exactly identical to the MPL V1.1?
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Ann Harrison
-- license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3
