Oracle donates OpenOffice.org to Apache

Oracle donates OpenOffice.org to Apache

The Apache License is a BSD-ish license that is permissive enough that there is no real reason to require copyright assignment from anyone. The normal reason why people ask for copyright assignment is so that they (and only they) can relicense derivatives on any terms they feel like. This is typically how dual licensing is accomplished, one copyleft license for anyone, plus we own the copyright, so we can sell our special sauce version without making source available, but everyone else has to share, etc.

With a permissive license like the Apache License that generally isn't necessary. Anyone can create closed derivatives if they feel that is appropriate, not just the people with the copyright. In many ways a BSD licensed project without copyright assignment is more open than a GPL licensed project with it. The latter always creates a preferred party who can do things that none of the other participants can do.