Additional license for H2: EPL (Eclipse Public License)

[Thomas Mueller]

Hi,

The plan is to dual-license H2. The additional license is EPL (Eclipse
Public License). The current license (MPL, Mozilla Public License)
will stay. Current users are not affected because they can keep MPL.
EPL is very similar to MPL, the only bigger difference is related to
patents (EPL is a bit more business friendly in this regard). See also
http://opensource.org/licenses/eclipse-1.0.php,
http://www.eclipse.org/legal/eplfaq.php (FAQ),
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Burnette/?p=131

Please tell me what you think about this change. Is there any
disadvantage (I don't see any)?

Regards,
Thomas

[Endre Stølsvik]

Why not just BSD or Apache?

But, on a general basis, the more the merrier, if you ask me.. Throw in
GPL for good measure!

Endre.

[Thotheolh]

EPL seems to be fine.

[Thomas Mueller]

Hi,

> Why not just BSD or Apache?

For why not see http://www.h2database.com/html/license.html
Summary and License FAQ

Regards,
Thomas

On Sat, Apr 19, 2008 at 2:27 AM, Thotheolh <twzg...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> EPL seems to be fine.
>
>
> >
>

[Endre Stølsvik]

Thomas Mueller wrote:
> Hi,
>
>> Why not just BSD or Apache?
>
> For why not see http://www.h2database.com/html/license.html
> Summary and License FAQ

This part?
" However, nobody is allowed to rename H2, modify it a little, and
sell it as a database engine without telling the customers it is in fact
H2. This happened to HSQLDB ... "

I'm happy with anything that's actually commercial friendly, and
actually intends to stay that way - even down to LGPL! (Pointedly: As
long as one don't end up getting a MySQL crap-in-your-followers'-face
thing).

Keep up the amazing stuff!

You're Swiss, btw? That fits - it's always good quality from that
country! :-)

Thanks,
Endre.

[Thotheolh]

Just wondering, if I have a software I developed from scratch myself
and it's back end is H2 database (older H2 build with only MPL license
(original H2.jar without any modifications)), for the entire software,
what license is to be given to it ? Can it be GPL ? Must I need to add
an MPL license since I am using H2 for backend ?

ANother scenario is, as similar to above, I build my software from
scratch and the back end is the latest MPL + EPL H2 database (original
H2.jar without any modifications), for the software, what license is
to be given to it ? Can it be GPL ? Must I need to add an MPL+ EPL
license since I am using H2 for backend ?

[Thomas Mueller]

Hi,

> You're Swiss, btw?

Yes.

Regards,
Thomas

[Thomas Mueller]

Hi,

In any case, you don't need to use MPL or EPL for your source code.
You can distribute binaries (jar files) in any form you want.

> Just wondering, if I have a software I developed from scratch myself
> and it's back end is H2 database (older H2 build with only MPL license
> (original H2.jar without any modifications)), for the entire software,
> what license is to be given to it ? Can it be GPL ?

You can not distribute the source code of H2 as GPL. What you can do
is distribute your source code under GPL and the source code of H2
under MPL (or EPL).

> Must I need to add
> an MPL license since I am using H2 for backend ?

If you modify the source code of H2 and distribute H2, then you need
to distribute the changed source code of H2 under MPL (or EPL). If you
don't modify H2, you don't need to include the source code of H2 (but
you can).

> ANother scenario is, as similar to above, I build my software from
> scratch and the back end is the latest MPL + EPL H2 database (original
> H2.jar without any modifications), for the software, what license is
> to be given to it ? Can it be GPL ?

It's the same scenario. If you distribute the h2.jar file, you can use
whatever license you like for your source code.

> Must I need to add an MPL+ EPL
> license since I am using H2 for backend ?

No.

Regards,
Thomas

[Thotheolh]

Thanks. Now it's clearer on how I should license my software.