Difference between revisions of "SMILA/Legal Documentation"

Revision as of 08:15, 19 September 2008

Basic Eclipse.org legal documentation styles.

There are four Eclipse.org legal documentation styles: Agreements, Abouts, Licenses and Notices.

Software User Agreement

• The Basics:

The top-level umbrella agreement is the Eclipse Foundation Software User Agreement. The Software User Agreement, to be called "SUA" herein, is not actually a license - it does not grant any rights to use the software and that is why it must reference other legal notices and agreements. The main purpose of the SUA is to describe the potential layout of the legal documentation in the accompanying content.

• The Details:

The most important wording is that which says that the EPL applies to all the content unless otherwise indicated. Note that although the EPL is used by all projects at the Eclipse Foundation, at the discretion of the Board of Directors a project may be dual-licensed, or even be maintained under another license altogether.

The rest of the text describes the other kinds of notices or licenses that may be found in the content. There is also a short paragraph under the heading "Cryptography" which lets you know that the content may contain cryptography.

You will also often see on many of the download pages at Eclipse.org, text that says:

All downloads are provided under the terms and conditions of the Eclipse Foundation Software User Agreement unless otherwise specified.

• The Location:

The SUA usually appears in the root directory of Eclipse builds as the file named "notice.html". A copy of the Project’s primary license(s) must appear in the same location as the SUA. In most cases this will be the Eclipse Public License alone.

Note: The appropriate SUA and a copy of any referenced license must be located in the root directory of any Eclipse.org distributed build (typically distributed as a ZIP file). Any web page that makes builds available must have a link to the appropriate SUA with appropriate wording.

Glossary:

SUA – Eclipse Foundation Software User Agreement

EPL – Eclipse Public License Version 1.0

The EPL was written specifically for the Eclipse Foundation. First, it changes the Agreement Steward, formerly IBM for the CPL, to now be the Eclipse Foundation for the EPL. Second, it addresses concerns some Eclipse Foundation members had with how the CPL deals with possible patent litigation. FAQ

CPL – Common Public License Version

EMO – Eclipse Management Organization

PMC – Project Management Committee

Links:

All Open Source License