[Libreoffice] LibreOffice licensing

[Michael Meeks]

On Sat, 2011-06-04 at 08:48 -0400, Allen Pulsifer wrote:
> 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?

	So if we say MPLv2 and LGPLv3+ - that is fine; and the resulting code
would be under those (compatible) licenses. Which are copy-left.

> 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?

	If they have changed the MPL code modules - they need to release those
changes; otherwise (since the MPL is a weak-copy-left) they can not
release other changes (like extensions) they bundle - obviously.

> That would not however stop third parties from combining the
> Apache OpenOffice code with LibreOffice code and doing with that whatever
> both licenses allowed.

	Sure - one example is IBM, they have a load of MPL code, and even LGPL
code in Lotus Symphony. Amusingly, IBM are far more pragmatic in
practise than ASF is - one of the tragic ironies of the situation.

	HTH,

		Michael.

-- 
 michael.meeks at novell.com  <><, Pseudo Engineer, itinerant idiot