License Policy

N.B.: This is a draft, and also not the master copy.

Mozilla Foundation License Policy

Version 2.0 draft 2

Introduction

The Mozilla Foundation has created this formal policy governing licenses to be used for source files stored in our code repositories. Developers with check-in privileges to the mozilla.org code repositories must comply with this policy unless specifically advised otherwise in writing by The Mozilla Foundation.

The following is a brief summary of the Mozilla Foundation license policy:

• Newly-added code must be licensed under the terms pertaining to that part of the repository to which it is added.
• You must consult the licensing team before adding code not under one of the mozilla.org-approved licenses.

For the complete license policy see the following sections.

Definitions

• Mozilla Code is code in our repositories which originated with the Mozilla Project.
• Third Party Code is code in our repositories which did not originate with the Mozilla Project. It is usually, but not always, under its own specific license.
• Product Code means all files any part of which end up in nightly binaries of the Mozilla family of Internet clients - Firefox, Thunderbird, SeaMonkey and Camino. Note that this definition excludes the code of tools used merely to build these products. Code may be both Product Code and Third Party Code.
• Support Code is code in our repositories which originated with the Mozilla Project but is not Product Code.

Please see the diagram for the relationship between the four definitions.

Acceptable Licenses

1. The following license (the "Mozilla tri-license") is acceptable in all circumstances:

   • MPL/GPL/LGPL triple license, allowing use of the file under the terms of any one of:
     • The Mozilla Public License, version 1.1 or later (MPL)
     • The GNU General Public License, version 2 or later (GPL)
     • The GNU Lesser General Public License, version 2.1 or later (LGPL)

   For new source files please use the boilerplate license notice appropriate for the type of file you are creating. Please don't copy boilerplate from existing files.

2. The following license is acceptable for trivial pieces of Support Code, such as testcases:

   • Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication, using the following boilerplate:

     Any copyright is dedicated to the Public Domain.
     http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/

3. The following licenses are acceptable only for Support Code in directories whose files are already under the license in question, as outlined later in this policy:

   • The Mozilla Public License, version 1.1 or later (MPL) alone
   • The Netscape Public License, version 1.1 or later (NPL) alone
   • MPL/GPL dual license, allowing use of the file under the terms of either of:
     • The Mozilla Public License, version 1.1 or later (MPL)
     • The GNU General Public License, version 2 or later (GPL)

4. For Third Party Code, you should use the license pertaining to that code when modifying it or adding new files to it, and the tri-license when adding Mozilla-specific files such as build system files. See below for a list of directories this applies to.

5. All Product Code must be under either the tri-license or, for Third Party Product Code, a license compatible with all three sets of terms in the tri-license (e.g. BSD-like licenses). The purpose of this rule is to make sure that users of our code can take and use the same code under any one of the three licenses; no group is disadvantaged.

Repositories

The Mozilla project runs a number of source code repositories, plus repositories for documentation and websites which are out of scope for this policy. Here is a list of repositories plus a summary of the licensing situation.

Repository	Domain Name	Summary
CVS	cvs.mozilla.org	Mozilla Code is mostly MPL/GPL/LGPL, with some exceptions - see below.
Subversion	svn.mozilla.org	All non-website Mozilla Code is MPL/GPL/LGPL.
Mercurial	hg.mozilla.org	All Mozilla Code except other-licenses/branding is MPL/GPL/LGPL.

Support Code (Not Tri-Licensed)

The following directories contain Support Code which is not tri-licensed. (See Acceptable Licenses item 3, above.)

Webtools

Software	Repository	Directory	License
APIDoc	CVS	webtools/apidoc	NPL/GPL
Bonsai	CVS	webtools/bonsai	NPL
Browser Buster	CVS	webtools/browser-buster	MPL
Build	CVS	webtools/build	NPL
Bugzilla	CVS	webtools/bugzilla	MPL
"Bugzilla 3" (defunct)	CVS	webtools/bugzilla3	MPL/GPL
Despot	CVS	webtools/despot	MPL
Doctor	CVS	webtools/doctor	MPL
Graph	CVS	webtools/graph	MPL
Hendrix	CVS	webtools/hendrix	MPL
Leak-O-Matic	CVS	webtools/leak-o-matic	MPL
Litmus	CVS	webtools/litmus	MPL
LXR	CVS	webtools/lxr	Our fork is unlabelled, but the original version is GPL
MiscStats	CVS	webtools/miscstats	MPL
MozBot	CVS	webtools/mozbot	MPL
NewsBot	CVS	webtools/newsbot	MPL
Party Tool	CVS	webtools/partytool	MPL/GPL/LGPL, MIT and The Open Group Test Suite ** non-free ** (for CakePHP)
PLIF	CVS	webtools/plif	MPL/GPL
Registry	CVS	webtools/registry	NPL
Testopia	CVS	webtools/testopia	MPL
Tinderbox 1	CVS	webtools/tinderbox	NPL
Tinderbox 2	CVS	webtools/tinderbox2	MPL
Tinderbox 3	CVS	webtools/tinderbox3	MPL
Web Sniffer	CVS	webtools/web-sniffer	MPL
webstats	CVS	webtools/webstats	MPL
whack-license	CVS	webtools/whack-license	MPL/GPL

Not Webtools

Software	Repository	Directory	License
Branding	CVS, Mercurial	other-licenses/branding	See the trademark licensing pages
Client Customization Kit	CVS	cck	Some MPL 1.1 or later, some MPL/GPL/LGPL
Rhino (JavaScript in Java)	CVS	js/rhino	MPL 1.1 or later/GPL 2.0 or later

Third Party Code

The following is a complete list of directories containing Third Party Code. (See Acceptable Licenses item 4, above.) Some of this code is also Product Code; if so, it will be under a license compatible with the tri-license.

Software	Repository	Directory	License
7-zip	CVS, Mercurial	other-licenses/7zstub	LGPL
ATK	CVS, Mercurial	other-licenses/atk-1.0	LGPL
Boehm Garbage Collector	CVS	gc/boehm	Some MIT-like, some MPL/GPL/LGPL
bsdiff	CVS, Mercurial	other-licenses/bsdiff	BSD Protection License
IAccessible2	CVS, Mercurial	other-licenses/ia2	LGPL
libart	CVS	other-licenses/libart_lgpl	LGPL
libical	CVS	calendar/libical	LGPL 2.1/MPL 1.0 or later
libjpeg	CVS	jpeg	JPEG License
libpng	CVS	modules/libimg/png	PNG License
XPIDL	CVS	xpcom/typelib/xpidl	GPL
zlib	CVS	modules/zlib	ZLib License

Copying Code

You may copy code between files with identical licensing terms, or between files where the target file has a subset of the licenses of the source file (e.g. MPL/LGPL/GPL -> MPL). For any other transfer, consult the licensing team first.

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This concludes the list of licenses acceptable to mozilla.org for use with Mozilla code. If you happen to find a file in the Mozilla source tree under a license which does not conform to the pattern above, please report it to licensing@mozilla.org.