European Union Public Licence
| Author | European Union |
|---|---|
| Latest version | 1.1 |
| Publisher | European Union |
| Published | January 2007 |
| DFSG compatible | Yes |
| FSF approved | Yes |
| OSI approved | Yes |
| GPL compatible | No, except by relicensing |
| Copyleft | Yes |
| Linking from code with a different license | Depends on the applicable copyright law in the European Union country where the Licensor resides or has his registered office for defining what qualify as a derivative work. |
| Website | joinup |
The European Union Public Licence (EUPL) is a software licence that has been created and approved by the European Commission. It is a free software licence.
Its first version 1.0 was approved on 9 January 2007. Its latest version is version 1.1, which was approved by the European Commission on 9 January 2009. The licence is available in 22 official languages of the European Union. All linguistic versions have the same validity. The EUPL v 1.1 is OSI certified as from March 2009.
This licence was originally intended to be used for the distribution of software developed in the framework of the IDABC programme, although (given its generic scope) it is also suitable for use by any software developer. Its main goal is its focusing on being consistent with the copyright law in the 28 Member States of the European Union, while retaining compatibility with popular open-source software licences such as the GNU General Public License. The first IDABC software packages mentioned are CIRCA groupware,IPM and the eLinkG2G, G2C, G2B specification software. Since the launch (in October 2008) of the European Open Source Observatory and Repository (OSOR), which has been migrated to the Joinup collaborative platform (December 2011) other software mainly produced by European administrations, has been licensed under the EUPL.
With licence proliferation a growing problem, the European Union justifies its licence as the first open source licence to be released by an international governing body.
The European Union also wishes to dispel legal uncertainties, real or perceived, in respect of other open-source licences, such as the GNU General Public License, by creating a software licence which takes due account of European Union Law.
A third goal of this licence is to create an open-source licence available into 22 official languages of the European Union, and is sure to conform to the existing copyright laws of each of the 28 Member States of the European Union.
Lastly, to dispel fears of licence proliferation, the licence was developed with other open-source licences in mind and specifically authorizes covered works to be re-released under the following licences, when combined with their covered code in larger works:
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