On 10/12/2016 10:21 AM, Ian Skerrett
wrote:
I would also point
out that in my mind an existing Eclipse project licensed under
the EPL 1.0 would have a difficult task ahead of them if they
want to become GPL-compatible under the EPL 2.0. They would need
to seek the approval of all of their past contributors in order
to make it possible. We would have to ensure that the drafting
reflects that.
OK,
I didn’t realize this was going to be the case. Can you
clarify how existing projects will move to EPL 2.0 or do you
see most existing projects staying with EPL 1.0.
Projects can move from 1.0 to 2.0 by simply deciding to do so, and
updating their fileheaders and license.html files. This is allowed
under Section 7 of the EPL 1.0 which says:
In addition, after a new version of the Agreement is
published, Contributor may elect to distribute the Program
(including its Contributions) under the new version.
Note that to the best of my knowledge, almost all fileheaders for
Eclipse projects explicitly state that the file is licensed under
the Eclipse Public License v1.0. Changing these headers will
result in a lot of churn in the project's history. For that and
other reasons, I am assuming that it may take quite some time for
projects to switch over to the new version.
In my mind, the GPL compatibility would not automatically fall
under this provision, as the original contributors had not
explicitly granted that additional right. My motivation for GPL
compatibility is to avoid the future use of the permissive
licensing specifically because of a valid need to have GPL
compatibility. E.g. using the EPL+EDL(BSD) dual-license which is
becoming quite commonplace in some parts of the Eclipse community
such as IoT.
Some clever drafting may be required to ensure that this is
clear.
Comments and feedback welcomed!