New OpenOffice.org license and contributor agreement

All,

Some interesting news.

Summary
========

* The license for code is changing from the early LGPL v 2.1 to 3.0  
effective the Beta of OpenOffice.org 3.0. (The actual date of this  
beta has not been finalized.)

* The Joint Copyright Assignment form (JCA) is being replaced by the  
Sun Microsystems Inc. Contributor Agreement (SCA). This change is  
effective immediately with this announcement.

Background
==========

Late last year, there was a discussion about the implications of the  
ratification of GPLv3 or LGPLv3 for OpenOffice.org among the  
OpenOffice.org project leads. The leads were generally in favour of  
adopting the updated licenses. The outcome of this and other  
discussions is that Sun is changing the license for the OpenOffice.org  
codebase to the more flexible and protective LGPL v3 [0], effective  
with the beta of OpenOffice.org 3.0 which is due later this year. This  
change is supported by the OpenOffice.org Community Council.

This move forward is the natural evolutionary step to take for a  
codebase using a license from the FSF license family. The drafting  
process for the license involved substantial FOSS community input and  
we will benefit from this work. In particular, the new license  
includes additional protections for the community against software  
patents.

OpenOffice.org will continue using the LGPL so as to minimize the  
disruption to our community and expanding ecosystem, which evolved  
around the LGPL codebase. The LGPL grants flexibility to a broad range  
of users and developers, while still ensuring that modifications to  
the code are contributed back to the community.

The new license is a major reason to exchange the Joint Copyright  
Assignment(JCA) with the Sun Contributor Agreement(SCA) [1]. For  
OpenOffice.org there will be an addendum, which accommodates  
developers of the core OOo codebase and of non-core extensions through  
different contribution models. It does not change the fact that  
contributions to the product packaged as OpenOffice.org require an SCA.

The addendum enables OpenOffice.org to more easily host the source  
code of extensions, and thus promotes collaboration with other  
interested parties on the respective extension in a familiar  
environment. There is similar flexibility for documentation. The  
creation of the related contribution guidelines is in progress.

A large number of GPL/LGPL projects have already moved to v3 [2]. For  
OpenOffice.org the next major release is the right time to change.  
Preparations will start immediately, so that we can publish  
OpenOffice.org 3.0 Beta under LGPLv3.

The SCA, including the OpenOffice.org addendum, will be published on  
the OpenOffice.org site together with a FAQ and a pointer to the Sun  
SCA FAQ [3]. It comes into effect with this announcement. See also our  
FAQ on licensing. [4].

A copy of this announcement can be found at http://www.openoffice.org/licenses/newlicense2008.html
  .

Regards,

Louis Suarez-Potts
Community Manager
OpenOffice.org
Sun Microsystems, Inc.


[0] http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/lgpl.html
[1] http://www.openoffice.org/licenses/sca.pdf
[2] http://gpl3.palamida.com:8080/index.jsp
[3] http://www.sun.com/software/opensource/contributor_agreem...
[4] http://www.openoffice.org/FAQs/faq-licensing.html


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