License Woes
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- We believe wholeheartedly in the benefits of open source development, but not everyone does. Some people or groups may try to take advantage of the work of open source development through claims of patent infringement. This is unfortunate, but it is also reality. We suggest that you be aware of the intellectual property implications of what you are working on to protect yourself and others from falling afoul of someone else's patent.
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- It is possible for you to compile and package the source code standalone or bundled with proprietory code as part of a larger work and sell it for profit. You may want to do this to provide a product warranty. But, you must tell the licensee that the source code to the part of the work is available and that vtiger nor any contributor accepts any liability for the malfunction of the code. (MozPL Section 3.6)
- Coverage is on the source file level. Meaning: If you add a source file to the codebase, that file is owned by you, and you decide what license to use. But it must be possible to compile the product without that source file. If you modify a file already in the codebase the file continues to be under MozPL, and you must make the file available as open source.
- vtiger CRM 6.0 is distributed under VPL 1.2. The only difference is that vtiger protects its trademark and logo.
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- it has some complex restrictions that make it incompatible with the GNU GPL. That is, a module covered by the GPL and a module covered by the MPL cannot legally be linked together. We urge you not to use the MPL 1.1 for this reason.
- However, MPL 1.1 has a provision (section 13) that allows a program (or parts of it) to offer a choice of another license as well. If part of a program allows the GNU GPL as an alternate choice, or any other GPL-compatible license as an alternate choice, that part of the program has a GPL-compatible license.
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- Unmodified MPL-licensed Files - MPL-only In the simplest case, the developer combines unmodified MPL-licensed files into a project with (L)GPL-licensed files to create a Larger Work and seeks to distribute the resulting combination under the terms of the (L)GPL.
- In this case, Section 3.3 of the MPL permits the individual files to be distributed as part of the Larger Work, with no further changes required. The developer may simply leave the file untouched, with all notices intact.
