Constitutional affairs legal affairs

Workshop: Legal aspects of free and open source software 
____________________________________________________________________________________________ 
 
23
Figure 4 Exception to the exception 
 
 
It is therefore possible that the "daughter project" DELTA: 
1.
 
will be (by decision of its licensor and because code under these licences (EPL, LGPL 
or MPL) was reused) distributed under one of the more moderately copyleft licences 
listed as compatible (EPL, LGPL or MPL); 
2.
 
that  some  code  from  DELTA  will  be  combined  or  forked  in  a  "grand-daughter" 
project OMEGA, and; 
3.
 
that the OMEGA licensor will decide to distribute its executable version under 
proprietary terms. 
Even in such a case (that has never occurred in real world so far) the portions of the DELTA 
code present in OMEGA will stay covered by their licence (EPL, LGPL or MPL): these files 
must stay FOSS and publicly available as source code, but the copyleft is limited at file 
level according to the provision of these licences (meaning without a pretention for viral 
effect impacting the rest of the OMEGA project). 
This possible exception has made some analysts to declare that the EUPL "
gives recipients 
ways to relicense the work under the terms of other selected licenses, and some of those 
only provide a weaker copyleft. Thus, developers can't rely on this license to provide a 
strong copyleft”
37
. 
This point is of course – at least theoretically – founded. But we have to see it in a context, 
and temper it: 
-
 
the term “relicense” is especially ambiguous and not appropriate, as previously stated. 
-
 
Some compatible licences provide a weaker “copyleft” (LGPL, MPL, EPL): it does not 
mean that they are weak or permissive: they are “copyleft”, but at file level, without 
pretention to provide a viral effect. 
-
 
Providing a “strong copyleft” is not a business ideal in an interoperable world, where 
multiple licences coexist. Furthermore, the notion of “strong copyleft” is especially 
unclear, debated and has not been confirmed by European case law. 
                                                 
37
 FSF – op. cit. 

---

Policy Department C: Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs 
____________________________________________________________________________________________ 
 
24
4.5.
 
Conclusion 
The above series of example illustrate that the EUPL  
-
 
protects effectively the covered code from exclusive appropriation by a third party; 
-
 
make some part the covered code reusable in OTHER free software projects (without 
re-licensing the original project); 
-
 
is not hostile/does not try to prevent the reuse of some code of these other projects 
by the software industry. 
 
REFERENCES 

 
The EUPL v1.1 – text of the licence, in 22 languages – Joinup.eu. 
https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/software/page/eupl
 

 
Guidelines for using the EUPL 
https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/software/page/eupl/eupl-
guidelines
 

 
Guidelines on public procurement of Open Source Software 
https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/elibrary/document/guideline-public-procurement-open-
source-software
 

 
Spanish Royal decree 4/2010  (English version) see in particular article 16 
http://administracionelectronica.gob.es/recursos/pae_000002017.pdf
 

 
The EUPL in Italy: 
www.eupl.it
 

 
“Experience of introducing the EUPL in ISTAT” (Carlo Vacari 2010) presentation slides 
(in Italian) : 
http://fr.slideshare.net/vaccaricarlo/introduzione-eupl-in-istat
 

 
Malta public sector software distribution policy 
https://www.mita.gov.mt/MediaCenter/PDFs/1_GMICT_P_0097_Open_Source_Software
_v2.0.p
d
f
 

 
Guide for the procurement of standard-based ICT / Elements of Good Practice – 
(European Economics 23 March 2012) - 
http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/ssai/docs/study-
action23/d3-guidelines-finaldraft2012-03-22.pdf 
 

 
ISA standard “Sharing and reusing clauses” 
http://joinup.ec.europa.eu/elibrary/document/isa_share_reuse_d_2-1-standard-
sharing-and-re-using-clauses-contracts
 
 
ANNEX: TEXT OF THE EUPL (V1.2 – ENGLISH VERSION) 
European Union Public Licence V. 1.2 
EUPL © the European Union 2007, 2013 
This European Union Public Licence (the “EUPL”) applies to the Work (as defined below) 
which is provided under the terms of this Licence. Any use of the Work, other than as 
authorised under this Licence is prohibited (to the extent such use is covered by a right of 
the copyright holder of the Work). 
The Original Work is provided under the terms of this Licence when the Licensor (as defined 
below) has placed the following notice immediately following the copyright notice for the 
Original Work: 
Licensed under the EUPL 
or has expressed by any other means his willingness to license under the EUPL. 
 

---

Workshop: Legal aspects of free and open source software 
____________________________________________________________________________________________ 
 
25
1. Definitions 
In this Licence, the following terms have the following meaning: 
- The Licence: this Licence. 
- The Original Work: the work or software distributed and/or communicated by the Licensor 
under this Licence, available as Source Code and also as Executable Code as the case may 
be. 
- Derivative Works: the works or software that could be created by the Licensee, based 
upon the Original Work or modifications thereof. This Licence does not define the extent of 
modification or dependence on the Original Work required in order to classify a work as a 
Derivative Work; this extent is determined by copyright law applicable in the country 
mentioned in Article 15.  
- The Work: the Original Work and/or its Derivative Works. 
- The Source Code: the human-readable form of the Work which is the most convenient for 
people to study and modify. 
- The Executable Code: any code which has generally been compiled and which is meant to 
be interpreted by a computer as a program. 
- The Licensor: the natural or legal person that distributes and/or communicates the Work 
under the Licence. 
- Contributor(s): any natural or legal person who modifies the Work under the Licence, or 
otherwise contributes to the creation of a Derivative Work. 
- The Licensee or “You”: any natural or legal person who makes any usage of the Work 
under the terms of the Licence. 
- Distribution and/or Communication: any act of selling, giving, lending, renting, 
distributing, communicating, transmitting, or otherwise making available, on-line or off-
line, copies of the Work or providing access to its essential functionalities at the disposal of 
any other natural or legal person. 
 
2. Scope of the rights granted by the Licence 
The Licensor hereby grants You a world-wide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, sub-licensable 
licence to do the following, for the duration of copyright vested in the Original Work: 
-
 
use the Work in any circumstance and for all usage, 
-
 
reproduce the Work, 
-
 
modify the Original Work, and make Derivative Works based upon the Work, 
-
 
communicate to the public, including the right to make available or display the Work or 
copies thereof to the public and perform publicly, as the case may be, the Work, 
-
 
distribute the Work or copies thereof, 
-
 
lend and rent the Work or copies thereof, 
-
 
sub-license rights in the Work or copies thereof. 
Those rights can be exercised on any media, supports and formats, whether now known or 
later invented, as far as the applicable law permits so. 
In the countries where moral rights apply, the Licensor waives his right to exercise his 
moral right to the extent allowed by law in order to make effective the licence of the 
economic rights here above listed. 
The Licensor grants to the Licensee royalty-free, non exclusive usage rights to any patents 
held by the Licensor, to the extent necessary to make use of the rights granted on the 
Work under this Licence. 

---