Joomla! is moving to ensure the future of the project by committing to compliance with the GNU/GPL license. This decision reflects a lengthy introspection combined with legal considerations to properly secure the project in the spirit of Open Source. For us, for everyone, Open Source does matter. It's a long, slow road. We're not going to make any sudden moves because we know that a lot of people are relying on us to maintain some stability and meet expectations. We are very much aware that a lot of people make their living around Joomla!, and we are sensitive to producing sudden disruptions in livelihoods. Joomla! is a unique project with unique needs and unique GPL issues. Solutions won't just come off the shelf. There are solutions and compromises on these issues that we are still exploring, and we want to keep hearing from the community so we can get it right.
We will provide facts as soon as we have them. If we seem too silent, it's because we don't want to speak until we can do so clearly and confidently. And you'll have plenty of notice before any large changes get made. Here's the plan: first, we clean our own house and bring the Joomla! sites into compliance. Next, we ask people in the community to voluntarily comply with the license. At the same time, we try to help people understand what it takes to comply and how they can do it easily. We believe we're going to get a lot of compliance that way.
So far, that's the entire plan. No lawsuits, no pogroms, no martyrs. More to the point, no shouting, no demonisation, and no drawing lines between "us" and "them". It's a big community with many kinds of developers, and we want solutions that will work for everybody.Sticking with the GPLWe have decided to stay with the license that made Joomla! possible. Unanimously supported by the core team and supported by the Open Source Matters board, this confirms that both Joomla! 1.0 and Joomla! 1.5 are released under the (pure) GPL.We've also decided that we do not have the authority to publish Joomla! under a version of the GPL that gives exceptions for proprietary extensions. It's difficult to relicense a GPL'd project, and there is no indication that OSM currently has that ability.
Our current understanding is that extensions that aren't released under the GPL or compatible licenses are non-compliant, and that view is based on the guidance of both the Free Software Foundation and the Software Freedom Law Center.There is a bit of complication here in that if extensions are separate works under copyright law, they are beyond the reach of the GPL, and are thus compliant even if they are not GPL-compatible.
The current architecture makes it extremely difficult to write nontrivial extensions that are separate works. We are currently researching our options in this area.By sticking with the GPL, we hope to achieve several objectives: - increase GPL compliance in our community - bring the project up to a representative standard shared by other like-minded open source projects - follow through on our commitment that the project should lead by example and engender open source philosophy - move to educate on ways for commercial Joomla! based projects to be both profitable and compliantWe Need Your HelpWe've worked through considerable growing pains already and the next steps will, no doubt, not be without challenges. Paramount in our considerations has been the users of this community and we understand sometimes taking tough decisions treads on a few toes. We are being entirely earnest in asking you to help in the process by doing what you can to support the foundations of the GPL and the protections it affords. We are also more than prepared to facilitate workshops to assist people through the process of achieving compliance.
The size and popularity of Joomla! extends well beyond our site; it provides a powerful tool for communities, government and non-government agencies, businesses and individuals. We have chosen to take a more difficult path by adhering to the GPL without ambiguity. If you're asked why Joomla! is taking these steps, the answer is simple. We were growing up, we made some mistakes and we're moving to correct those mistakes for the future of the project. We want to be responsible neighbours in both the GPL community and the Joomla! community.
