European Union Public License
The open source license for the European Union ( English European Union Public License , EUPL ) is one of the European Union issued Copyleft - license for the licensing of free software . It is expressly compatible with GPL v2, but has been adapted to European law and has been translated into the 22 languages of the EU member states since January 2008.
The first edition ( 1.0 ) was approved on January 9, 2007. The latest version is version 1.2 and was released by the European Commission on May 18, 2017. The license is available in 22 (EUPL 1.1) or 23 (EUPL 1.2) of the official languages of the European Union . All language versions apply equally. The EUPL v.1.1 has been OSI certified since March 2009 .
This license was originally intended to be used for the distribution of software within the framework of the IDABC program ( Interoperable Delivery of European eGovernment Services to public Administrations, Businesses and Citizens ), whereby (due to its generic scope) it is also suitable for use by software developers is. Its main goal is to focus on consistency with copyright law in the 27 member states of the European Union while being compatible with popular open source software licenses such as the GNU General Public License. The first mentioned IDABC software packages are the CIRCA Groupware, IPM and the eLink G2G, G2C, G2B specification software. Since the opening of the European Open Source Observatory and Repository in October 2008, a number of software has been registered under the EUPL, mainly by the European authorities. At the end of August 2010, the information service OSOR counted 49 projects on SourceForge and a further 50 projects in its own hosting portal Forge OSOR (today JOINUP.eu), which were published under this license.
Comparison with other open source licenses
According to the European Union, the license is the first open source license released by an international body. One goal of this license is to provide an open source license in the official languages of the European Union. At the same time, it aims to ensure that the existing copyright laws of the individual 27 member states of the European Union are taken into account. The European Union would also like to dispel real or supposed legal uncertainties, such as exist for example with other open source licenses such as the GNU General Public License, by creating a software license taking into account the law of the European Union. Therefore, the license was developed taking into account other open source licenses. In particular, it enables the relevant works to be released under the following licenses:
- GNU General Public License (GPL) v. 2 & v. 3
- Open Software License (OSL) v. 2.1, v. 3.0
- Common Public License v. 1.0
- Eclipse Public License v. 1.0
- CeCILL v. 2.0 & 2.1
- AGPL
- Mozilla Public License (MPL)
- LGPL
- LiLIQ-R & R +
Possible upgrades
The EUPL grants the European Commission the right to publish other language versions and new versions of the EUPL, insofar as this is necessary and reasonable, without reducing the scope of the rights under the license. Future upgrades will not be automatically applicable if software has been released under EUPL 1.1. New provisions are intended to close loopholes and open up alternative uses.
Application examples
- WollMux : a software developed as part of the Munich Linux migration project LiMux for the administration of templates and form documents of the city administration.
- PortableSigner : a program written by Peter Pfläging for signing PDF files.
- Pi-Hole : Linux-based software to operate a DNS server, which makes it possible to block advertisements or other unwanted sites across the network.
Web links
- European Union Public License (EUPL)
- Text of EUPL 1.2 in German
- Till Jaeger: European Public License (EUPL) available in 22 language versions. dated January 28, 2008
- Patrice-Emmanuel Schmitz: The European Union Public License (EUPL). In: International Free and Open Source Software Law Review. Volume 5, No. 2, 2013, pp. 121-136 ( PDF; 372 kB ).
credentials
- ↑ European Union Public License (EUPL)
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from April 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Linux-Community.de: EUPL more and more popular
- ^ Study of the compatibility mechanism of the EUPL
- ^ Peter Pfläging: PortableSigner Home Page. In: sourceforge.net. Retrieved December 28, 2019 .
