Mozilla

Revised Mozilla Public License — Beta 1

December 21st, 2010

In March of this year we kicked up a process to update the Mozilla Public License. We recently released the first beta of the MPL 2.0 and we believe that this beta is now feature complete, meaning that it addresses all major known issues. Of course if there are policy changes that come up and need to be made we will address them. We’ve kept both OSI and the FSF appraised of our efforts. We’ll be submitting the final versions for approval, and we believe that the MPL 2.0 meets all requirements for approval of these organizations.

When we launched this process I said the goals are to

make the MPL easier to use and incorporate a decade’s worth of experience. In particular I’m hoping to modernize and simplify the license while still keeping the things that have made it and the Mozilla project such a success.

Here’s what we’ve done:

  • Simplified and shortened, reducing the MPL by about a third (Luis tells me that specifically this draft reduces the length from 3702 words to 2289)
  • Made the notification requirements dramatically simpler and easier to fulfill
  • Modified patent language to be more in line with other major open source licenses, while still maintaing the patent defense clause
  • Improved compatibility with other licenses, making it easier to incorporate Apache code into Mozilla, and modernizing language regarding (optional) GPL compatibility
  • Improved globalization, including removal of many US-specific terms and concepts
  • Removed “Original Software” and “Initial Developer” concepts.

You can find detailed information on the beta 1 draft and how to participate at our MPL update website. We welcome general discussion through the governance-mpl-update mailing list, and specific comments through the co-ment web commenting tool.

Now is also a good time to distribute the Beta elsewhere. If you know of other MPL users who have not heard of the process, please reach out to them and let them know what we’re doing.

We’re eager to make the MPL the best it can be.

Categories: Mozilla

13 comments for “Revised Mozilla Public License — Beta 1”

  1. 1

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  4. 4

    hoş sözler said on February 15th, 2011 at 6:10 pm:

    Thanks. Good post.

  5. 5

    Coach Cameron said on February 21st, 2011 at 10:59 pm:

    Sounds great! Thanks for keeping us updated!

  6. 6

    gedarnet forums said on February 24th, 2011 at 8:42 am:

    I think Mozilla is the best and I personally trust him and use it

  7. 7

    Energy Publishing Brisbane said on March 14th, 2011 at 12:14 am:

    I will support Mozilla strongly !Thanks for your share! Iwill come back soon!

  8. 8

    josh said on April 17th, 2011 at 10:38 am:

    its great. i used to use the microsoft explorer but this is awesome. keep up the great work you guys!!!

  9. 9

    josh said on April 17th, 2011 at 10:40 am:

    well that was a big load of bs. i think your just like the rest of the big companys out there. if not then i oppologize.

  10. 10

    josh said on April 17th, 2011 at 10:42 am:

    lol

  11. 11

    jash said on April 17th, 2011 at 10:43 am:

    buckinghamm

  12. 12

    jash said on April 17th, 2011 at 10:43 am:

    denuthism

  13. 13

    jash said on April 17th, 2011 at 10:44 am:

    no need to wipe the seat……. a full grown crab jumps 3 feet!

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