Ownership of the CPL License

I previously wrote about ownership of software being licensed , but I should also comment on ownership of the license itself. We must also distinguish between ownership of copyrightable intellectual property that is the license and ownership of a copy of that license.

When a Contributor licenses software to a Recipient under the CPL, a new copy of the license is created binding the parties to the terms of their agreement. IBM, the author of the CPL and the owner of the copyright in that work, expressly authorizes everyone to make such copies of the license but reserves the right to create derivative works of the license:

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute copies of this Agreement, but in order to avoid inconsistency the Agreement is copyrighted and may only be modified in the following manner. ( CPL section 7.)

The right to create derivative works of the CPL is retained by an Agreement Steward, initially IBM. Because copyright law protects the CPL license itself, you can be confident that the version of the CPL you are offered by a prospective licensor is one that the Agreement Steward has blessed.

The CPL describes what happens if the Agreement Steward publishes a new version of the CPL:

The Program (including Contributions) may always be distributed subject to the version of the Agreement under which it was received. In addition, after a new version of the Agreement is published, Contributor may elect to distribute the Program (including its Contributions) under the new version. ( CPL section 7.)

Notice that a "Contributor may elect" to use the new CPL but is not required to do so.

For these reasons it is important to keep track of software not just in terms of which license you used, but which versions of the license. Proper record keeping is essential to managing open source licensing so you can know your rights and obligations.