> If I understand correctly: > What is developed by the Apache license can be "used" at LibreOffice but what is done by LibreOffice > can not be used by OpenOffice as OpenOffice would move to offer the principles of under the GPL.
I'm not sure this is entirely correct. TDF allowed itself some license flexibility by asking that all contributions to LO be licensed under both the LGPL and the MPL. Originally, TDF took OOo code under the LGPL, combined it with dual licensed LGPL/MPL contributions, and licensed the combined work under the LGPL, as required by the LGPL. That situation will likely change in the near future. The original OOo code will shortly be released under the Apache License (AL). The Apache License allows anyone to take the code and use it in a proprietary work. Once the OOo code is released under the AL, I expect to see many people recompiling OOo and selling it, some with no modifications, some with their own proprietary closed-source enhancements. The Apache Foundation will also likely to be hosting an Apache OpenOffice project where people can make contributions to that codebase, with the contributions also licensed under the Apache License. TDF will be able to use those contributions in LO. Everyone else will also be able to use those contributions, in both open-source and proprietary projects. Here's the tricky part. With the release of the original OOo code under the Apache License, it may now be possible, depending on license compatibility, to take the original OOo under the AL, combine it with LO modifications under the MPL, and incorporate that code into a closed-source project. If that is possible, we may also soon see the LO code incorporated into proprietary products. I'm not an expert on the compatibility of these two licenses however, either with each other or with proprietary code. Can anyone offer an opinion or shed some light on this? Which of the following could occur, once the original OOo codebase is released under the Apache License? 1. TDF takes OOo under the Apache License and combines it with LO contributions under the LGPL/MPL and licenses the combined work (LibreOffice) under both the LGPL and MPL? 2. A third party takes OOo under the Apache License and combines it with LO contributions under the MPL and proprietary closed-source code of its own to create a proprietary closed-source product? Regardless of the above two situations, the Apache Software Foundation will not take LO modifications dual-licensed under the LGPL and MPL and include them in the Apache OpenOffice distribution. There may be no license barrier to that, but ASF has a policy barrier that prevents it: the ASF has a policy that all code distributed at the ASF must be licensed only under the Apache License. The ASF will not incorporate any code that requires a different license. That would not however stop third parties from combining the Apache OpenOffice code with LibreOffice code and doing with that whatever both licenses allowed. _______________________________________________ LibreOffice mailing list LibreOffice@lists.freedesktop.org http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libreoffice