The Reciprocal Public License (RPL) is a

copyleft Copyleft is the legal technique of granting certain freedoms over copies of copyrighted works with the requirement that the same rights be preserved in derivative works. In this sense, ''freedoms'' refers to the use of the work for any purpose, ...

software license A software license is a legal instrument (usually by way of contract law, with or without printed material) governing the use or redistribution of software. Under United States copyright law, all software is copyright protected, in both source ...

released in 2001. Version 1.5 of the license was published on July 15, 2007, and was approved by the

Open Source Initiative The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is the steward of the Open Source Definition, the set of rules that define open source software. It is a California public-benefit nonprofit corporation,_with_501(c)(3).html" ;"title="110. - 6910./ref> is a type o ...

as an

open-source license An open-source license is a type of license for computer software and other products that allows the source code, blueprint or design to be used, modified and/or shared under defined terms and conditions. This allows end users and commercial compa ...

Description

The RPL was authored in 2001 by Scott Shattuck, a software architect for Technical Pursuit Inc. for use with that company's TIBET product line. The RPL was inspired by the

GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the Four Freedoms (Free software), four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was th ...

(GPL) and authored to explicitly remove what the RPL's authors have referred to as the GPL's "privacy loophole". The GPL privacy loopholes allows recipients of GPL'd code to: #make changes to source code which are never released to the open source community (by virtue of not deploying "to a third party"), and #derive financial or other business benefit from that action, violating what some might consider a simple concept of "fairness". Because of its " viral" nature, the RPL is often found in

dual-licensing Multi-licensing is the practice of distributing software under two or more different sets of terms and conditions. This may mean multiple different software licenses or sets of licenses. Prefixes may be used to indicate the number of licenses ...

models in which it is paired with more traditional closed-source licenses. This strategy allows software companies who use this model to present customers with a "pay with cash or pay with code" option, ensuring either the growth of the software directly through code contributions or indirectly through cash which can be used to fund further development.

Reception

The RPL was written to conform to the requirements of the

to ensure that it met the goals for an Open Source license and is an approved

. However, because of its requirements for reciprocation without exceptions, it is considered to be non-free by the

Free Software Foundation The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)#501(c)(3), 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Richard Stallman on October 4, 1985, to support the free software movement, with the organization's preference for software being distributed ...

. The license is used by

Active Agenda Active Agenda is an open source risk management tool. Active Agenda is designed to support operational risk management (ORM) in organizations and is optimized for high reliability organizations. It is a browser-based multi-user enabled software. ...

, a risk-management web application, an
NServiceBus
an asynchronous messaging library for the .NET/

Mono Mono may refer to: Common meanings * Infectious mononucleosis, "the kissing disease" * Monaural, monophonic sound reproduction, often shortened to mono * Mono-, a numerical prefix representing anything single Music Performers * Mono (Japanese b ...

platform. The RPL and GPL are used by

OPC Foundation The OPC Foundation (Open Platform Communications, formerly Object Linking and Embedding for Process Control) is an industry consortium that creates and maintains standards for open connectivity of industrial automation devices and systems, such as ...

under the dual-licence scheme, where the former is used for members and the latter for non-members.OPC Foundation Github page.
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References

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External links

The Reciprocal Public License 1.5
hosted by the

The Reciprocal Public License 1.3
hosted by Technical Pursuit Inc. (archived link)
The Reciprocal Public License 1.1
hosted by the Open Source Initiative

hosted by Technical Pursuit Inc. (archived link) Free and open-source software licenses Copyleft software licenses