The Netscape Public License (NPL) is a free software license, the license under which Netscape Communications Corporation originally released Mozilla. Generally speaking, free software license is a phrase used by the free software movement to mean any software license that meets the free software definition of the Free Software Foundation (FSF). ... Netscape Communications Corporation was the publisher of the Netscape Navigator web browser as well as many other internet and intranet client and server software products. ... Mozilla is a computer term that has had many different uses, though all of them have been related to Netscape Communications Corporation and its related application software. ...
Its most notable feature is that it gives the original developer of Mozilla (Netscape, now a subsidiary of Time Warner), the right to distribute modifications made by other contributors under whatever terms it desires, including proprietary terms, without granting similar rights to those other contributors in respect of the contribution of the original developer. This allowed the release of the Netscape 6 and later versions as proprietary software. Netscape Communications Corporation was the publisher of the Netscape Navigator web browser as well as many other internet and intranet client and server software products. ... Time Warner Inc. ... Proprietary software is software that has restrictions on using and copying it, usually enforced by a proprietor. ... Netscape was a proprietary cross-platform Internet suite created by Netscape Communications Corporation and then in-house by AOL to continue the Netscape series after Netscape 6. ...
This asymmetry in rights led to criticism of the license by many members of the open source and free software movements: the Free Software Foundation acknowledged it as a free-software license but one to be avoided, and the Open Source Initiative rejected it entirely. The FSF adds that it's not possible to combine software obtained under the license with software obtained under the GPL. Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ... Free software, as defined by the Free Software Foundation, is software which can be used, copied, studied, modified and redistributed without restriction. ... The Free Software Foundation logo The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a non-profit organization founded in October 1985 by Richard Stallman to support the free software movement (free as in freedom), and in particular the GNU project. ... The Open Source Initiative is an organization dedicated to promoting open source software. ... The GNU logo For other uses of GPL, see GPL (disambiguation). ...
The Mozilla Public License is similar, but lacks the asymmetry in rights. Time Warner, exercising its rights under the Netscape Public License, and at the request of the Mozilla Foundation, has relicensed all code in Mozilla that was under the Netscape Public License (including code by other contributors) to an MPL/GPL/LGPL triple license, thus removing the GPL-incompatibility. In computing, the Mozilla Public License is an open source and free software license. ... GNU logo The GNU Lesser General Public License (formerly the GNU Library General Public License) is an FSF approved free software license designed as a compromise between the GNU General Public License and simple permissive licenses such as the BSD license and the MIT License. ...
Netscape later experimented with prototypes of a web-based system which would allow a user to access and edit his files anywhere across a network, no matter what computer or operating system he happened to be using.
Netscape was not a plaintiff in the case, though its executives were subpoenaed and it contributed much material to the case, including the entire contents of the 'Bad Attitude' internal discussion forum.
Netscape Browser 8's first public beta was originally also scheduled for this date but, due to unfixed bugs, its release was delayed to March 3, 2005.
And because the NPL looks like a copyleft, some users may be confused about it, and might adopt the NPL, thinking that they are obtaining the benefits of copyleft for their software, when that is not the case.
You may distribute a Covered Work under the terms of the GNU General PublicLicense, version 2 or newer, as published by the Free Software Foundation, when it is included in a Larger Work which is as a whole distributed under the terms of the same version of the GNU General PublicLicense.
Netscape should recognize that this change is acceptable, and adopt it, to avoid confronting free software developers with a serious dilemma.
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