Common Development and Distribution License


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Common Development and Distribution License
Author Sun Microsystems
Version N/A
Publisher Sun Microsystems
DFSG compatible Yes
Free software Yes
OSI approved Yes
GPL compatible No
Copyleft Yes
Linking from code with a different license Yes

Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL) is a free software license, produced by Sun Microsystems, based on the Mozilla Public License (MPL), version 1.1.

Files licensed under the CDDL can be combined with files licensed under other licenses, whether open source or proprietary[1]. The Free Software Foundation considers it a free license incompatible with the GNU General Public License (GPL).[2] The incompatibility arises from a complex interaction of several clauses that the CDDL inherited from the MPL.[3] The CDDL was submitted for approval to the Open Source Initiative on December 1, 2004 and approved as an open source license in mid January 2005. In the first draft of the OSI's license proliferation committee report, the CDDL is one of nine preferred licenses listed as popular, widely used or with strong communities. [4]

The previous license used by Sun for its free software/open source projects was the Sun Public License (SPL), also derived from the Mozilla Public License. The CDDL license is considered by Sun to be SPL version 2.[5]

Example products released under CDDL:

The second CDDL proposal, submitted in early January 2005, includes some corrections that prevent the CDDL from being in conflict with European Copyright law and to allow single developers to use the CDDL for their work.

Contents

GPL Incompatibility Controversy

In the words of Danese Cooper, who is no longer with Sun, one of the reasons for basing the CDDL on the Mozilla license was that the Mozilla license is GPL-incompatible. Cooper stated, at the 6th annual Debian conference, that the engineers who had written the Solaris kernel requested that the license of OpenSolaris be GPL-incompatible. "Mozilla was selected partially because it is GPL incompatible. That was part of the design when they released OpenSolaris. [...] the engineers who wrote Solaris [...] had some biases about how it should be released, and you have to respect that".[6]

Simon Phipps (Sun's Chief Open Source Officer), who was present at the time and who had introduced Ms. Cooper as "the one who actually wrote the CDDL",[7] made no comment at the time.

Afterward, in September 2006, Phipps rejected Cooper's assertion.[1]

See also

Free software portal

External links

References

  1. ^ "Can code licensed under the CDDL be combined with code licensed under other open source licenses?". OpenSolaris FAQ: Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL). OpenSolaris.
  2. ^ "Various Licenses and Comments About Them - Common Development and Distribution License". Free Software Foundation. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.
  3. ^ "MPL / GPL Incompatibility". Retrieved on 2007-12-03.
  4. ^ First draft of OSI's license proliferation report
  5. ^ "SPL to CDDL as of NetBeans 5.0 - Why change licenses?". NetBeans. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.
  6. ^ Danese Cooper. (2006). OpenSolaris and CDDL discussion at Debconf 2006 (Ogg Theora). "Mozilla was selected partially because it is GPL incompatible. That was part of the design when they released OpenSolaris. [...] the engineers who wrote Solaris [...] had some biases about how it should be released, and you have to respect that"
  7. ^ Simon Phipps. (2006). OpenSolaris and CDDL discussion at Debconf 2006 (Ogg Theora). Event occurs at 13:00. "...we have got Danese Cooper in the room, and she is the one who actually wrote the CDDL..."






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