Mozilla Updates Decade Old Open Source License for Firefox and Thunderbird

Mozilla has announced that it has released a new version of its Mozilla Public License, the license under which Firefox, Thunderbird and most other Mozilla software and source code is distributed.

The MPL 2.0 is the first update to the license in more than a decade. Its scope was to make the text of the license shorter, more concise but also better compatible with international copyright laws and easier to adapt to changes.

"The maintainers of the Mozilla Public License are excited to announce the release of version 2.0 of the Mozilla Public License. We hope that this license will serve its users well for the next decade, just as MPL 1.1 did," Mozilla announced.

"Just like version 1.1, version 2.0 of the Mozilla Public License is a 'file-level copyleft' license. The license is designed to encourage contributors to share modifications they make to MPL-licensed code, while still allowing users to create projects that combine MPL-licensed code with code under other licenses (either open or proprietary)," it explained.

Like its predecessor, MPL 1.1, MPL 2.0 has gotten the stamp of approval from both the Free Software Foundation and by the Open Source Initiative. Mozilla has already decided to upgrade the license for all of its software.

The essence of the license is unchanged, it aims to fill the space between the liberal Apache license and the more restrictive GLP-type licenses. The gist of it is that anyone can use MPL code and modify it as long as those modifications are also distributed under the MPL and shared.

However, MPL code can be incorporated into larger proprietary code without the requirement of distributing that code as well under an open license.

The changes mostly refer to the language of the text. Parts that didn't have to be in there were removed and other parts become clearer. The new text also incorporates input from international copyright lawyers.

Another addition is better patent protection, a subject of increasing importance for open-source software, and the ability for an entire community of contributors to protect a single contributor in the case of a lawsuit.

As far as Firefox or Thunderbird users are concerned, the new license means little to nothing to them, the distribution of the binaries will suffer no change.