The GPL Cooperation Commitment is a statement―signed by GPLv2 and LGPLv2.1 copyright holders and other supporters―that gives open source licensees a fair chance to correct unintentional violations before their licenses are terminated. You may sign it even if you are not currently a copyright holder. See the FAQs for details.
The open source community should focus on building great things and encouraging others to participate
Let's be reasonable. People make mistakes. Supporters of this commitment believe it is important to provide incentives to organizations who seek to―and actually do―comply and fix their mistakes. We are promoting this initiative so that organizations can have reasonable assurances that they can use GPLv2 code even if there is an inadvertent and temporary noncompliance with the license due to ambiguity, misunderstanding or otherwise (as long as they make the effort to fix their non-compliance).
Why does this matter? It promotes a balanced approach to license enforcement. Greater predictability in open source licensing will help to increase participation and grow the open source ecosystem. Innovation takes a village and fairness and predictability are keys to growing that village.
What is our goal? Our goal is to get as many GPLv2 and LGPLv2.1 copyright holders as possible to make this commitment. Sign today to become an early adopter.
- You support open source community members whose intent is to foster collaboration and participation.
- You expect licensees to comply with the GPLv2 and LGPLv2 when redistributing code.
- You assume positive intent and understand that well-meaning people sometimes make mistakes.
- You have committed to giving licensees a fair chance to correct unintentional license violations.
It's easy. Visit this page, clone the repo, add your name to the bottom of the commitment text, and submit a pull request. Full instructions are provided on the page.
This commitment is for copyright holders in an individual capacity (i.e. not on behalf of the company for whom you may be working). See the FAQs for information on how companies can make this commitment.
"As President of the Open Source Initiative (OSI), I’m pleased to sign my name to the GPL Cooperation Commitment. This recent initiative by Red Hat helps to set a precedent for cooperation in GPL license enforcement―it’s a way to tell the open source community that good intentions matter. I encourage other members of the community to support this initiative by adding your name. Let's celebrate the 20th anniversary of Open Source by spreading this everywhere!" -Simon Phipps
No. The GPLv2 continues to be a very popular and important open source license. It was written to ensure compliant distribution of copyleft-licensed software. The GPL Cooperation Commitment seeks to provide additional predictability in how the license would be enforced, recognizing that there are occasional and temporary noncompliance with the license due to ambiguity or misunderstandings.
One of the additional features that was included in GPLv3 is a “cure” period for license noncompliance, which creates incentives for distributors of GPLv3 licensed code to discover and fix compliance problems. With the GPLv3 cure period, a licensee is afforded a period of time (the cure period) to correct errors in compliance before the license is terminated. Projects that continue to use GPLv2 would benefit from adoption of the GPLv3 approach to correcting compliance errors. Switching licenses from to GPLv3 or LGPLv3 is often impractical, inconsistent with upstream license obligations, or contrary to the general preferences and expectations of participants.
A copyright holder who signs the GPL Cooperation Commitment is stating that he or she is applying the cure and reinstatement language of GPLv3 to copyrighted code that is licensed under GPLv2, LGPLv2.1 and LGPLv2.
Why should I sign the formal commitment on GitHub as an individual? Can’t I just decide privately that I will provide the cure provisions?
Signing the commitment is a way to demonstrate your commitment and publicly communicate to others in the free and open source community that you have adopted the cure provisions. Also by adding your name to this commitment, you are providing more awareness and support for the initiative.
Red Hat initiated the GPL Cooperation Commitment and is promoting the project because we believe it will lead to more predictability in enforcement and, in turn, greater participation in the development and use of free and open source software. Red Hat’s intention is to let the world know that various companies and individuals such as yourself support this initiative and have agreed to the GPL Cooperation Commitment.
Red Hat, IBM, Google, Facebook, CA Technologies, Cisco, HPE, Microsoft, SAP, SUSE, and many Linux kernel developers have made this or a similar commitment. Check out the list of individuals and companies who have joined this particular initiative. But we did not invent this approach. This concept originated with the Software Freedom Law Center and the Free Software Foundation in their pioneering work on GPLv3. The Free Software Foundation and Software Freedom Conservancy moved the idea forward when they embodied the concept in their Principles of Community-Oriented GPL Enforcement. Later, in October 2017, the Linux kernel project adopted the approach in their Linux Kernel Enforcement Statement.
What if I am an individual who doesn’t own any copyrights in GPLv2, LGPLv2, LGPLv2.1 code (e.g. I only own copyrights in software under the Apache 2 license) and/or the company for whom I work owns all the copyrights in my work?
We encourage you to add your name to this commitment. The commitment would apply to future GPLv2, LGPLv2 and LGPLv2.1 code to which you do own the copyright and that you decide to distribute at a future time. In addition, you would be helping to document a more collaborative norm in the community and demonstrating your support for a more cooperative and predictable approach to license enforcement.
Follow these instructions if your organization or company is interested in supporting this initiative.
Please review all of the above FAQs and other documents in this repository. If you have any further questions, please send an email to [email protected]
This repository is managed by Red Hat, Inc.
If you are an individual, we suggest that you only provide your name and no other identifying information about yourself. The decision is yours of course but you should know that if you provide more information such as your email, phone number, or address the general public will have access to that information. Red Hat has no intention to contact you using information you are providing to this repository on GitHub in connection with the GPL Cooperation Commitment initiative but we cannot promise that other individuals or companies will not attempt to contact you. That is why we suggest just providing your name. Also be aware of GitHub's applicable Terms of Service and Privacy policies. Note that this repository and content may be moved to a different location and/or managed by a different entity or person in the future.