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HandWiki. Common Development and Distribution License. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/35930 (accessed on 22 September 2026).
HandWiki. Common Development and Distribution License. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/35930. Accessed September 22, 2026.
HandWiki. "Common Development and Distribution License" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/35930 (accessed September 22, 2026).
HandWiki. (2022, November 23). Common Development and Distribution License. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/35930
HandWiki. "Common Development and Distribution License." Encyclopedia. Web. 23 November, 2022.
Common Development and Distribution License
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The Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL) is a free and open-source software license, produced by Sun Microsystems, based on the Mozilla Public License (MPL). Files licensed under the CDDL can be combined with files licensed under other licenses, whether open source or proprietary. In 2005 the Open Source Initiative approved the license. The Free Software Foundation (FSF) considers it a free software license, but one which is incompatible with the GNU General Public License (GPL).

gpl mozilla open source

References

  1. CDDL_MPL_redline.pdf on sun.com (archived) https://web.archive.org/web/20060816050912/http://www.sun.com/cddl/CDDL_MPL_redline.pdf
  2. CDDL Why Summary on sun.com (archived, 2005) https://web.archive.org/web/20050214114513/http://www.sun.com/cddl/CDDL_why_summary.html
  3. McNealy: CDDL is 'best of both worlds' on zdnet.com by Aaron Tan (September 14, 2005) https://www.zdnet.com/article/mcnealy-cddl-is-best-of-both-worlds/
  4. CDDL on tldrlegal.com https://tldrlegal.com/license/common-development-and-distribution-license-%28cddl-1.0%29-explained
  5. "Common Development and Distribution License 1.0 | Open Source Initiative". https://opensource.org/licenses/CDDL-1.0. 
  6. "SPL to CDDL as of NetBeans 5.0 - Why change licenses?". NetBeans. http://www.netbeans.org/about/legal/license-change.html#Why_change_licenses?. "The SPL was based on the Mozilla license - as CDDL is as well. [..] One way to think of the CDDL is as a cleaned-up version of the Mozilla license - anyone can reuse it as-is. It's the SPL version 2.0." 
  7. "Andy Tucker on the CDDL". Alan Hargreaves' Blog. 12 April 2005. https://alanhargreaves.wordpress.com/2005/04/12/andy-tucker-on-the-cddl/. 
  8. Open source licenses, IP, and CDDL on Andrew Tuckers blog, "as one of the drafters of the CDDL I can at least comment on what the license says, and on our intentions in creating it." (Tuesday April 12, 2005) https://web.archive.org/web/20061111055302/http://blogs.sun.com/tucker/
  9. "For Approval: Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL)". 1 December 2004. https://lwn.net/Articles/114840/. 
  10. First draft of OSI's license proliferation report. Archived from the original on 2012-02-05. Retrieved 2013-01-03. https://web.archive.org/web/20120205011112/http://www.crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3%3Amss%3A11636%3A200607%3Anknhhdligldemhkfbhpd
  11. "Various Licenses and Comments About Them - Common Development and Distribution License". Free Software Foundation. https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#CDDL. 
  12. "Sun Proposes New Open-Source License". http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Linux-and-Open-Source/Sun-Proposes-New-OpenSource-License. 
  13. "The Blog of Ben Rockwood". http://cuddletech.com/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=31. 
  14. "Interpreting, enforcing and changing the GNU GPL, as applied to combining Linux and ZFS". Free Software Foundation. April 11, 2016. https://www.fsf.org/licensing/zfs-and-linux. 
  15. "MPL / GPL Incompatibility". http://www.tomhull.com/ocston/docs/mozgpl.html. 
  16. chandan (2006-09-18). "Copyrights, Licenses and CDDL Illustrated". blogs.oracle.com. https://blogs.oracle.com/chandan/entry/copyrights_licenses_and_cddl_illustrated. "A common misconception is about CDDL and GPL incompatibility. (Incompatibility in the sense: to combine two source files, one under GPL and another under CDDL, to create a common executable.) GPL is incompatible with most licenses like Mozilla Public License, Apache, and CDDL. GPL wants you erase those licenses and use GPL in that place, where as these licenses do not permit erasing them. Hence the incompatibility deadlock." 
  17. Danese Cooper (2006). OpenSolaris and CDDL discussion at Debconf 2006 (Ogg Theora). Event occurs at 27:26. Mozilla was selected partially because it is GPL incompatible. That was part of the design when they released OpenSolaris. ... the engineers who wrote Solaris ... had some biases about how it should be released, and you have to respect that (alternate URL, see 27:27 through 28:24) https://web.archive.org/web/20110722120048/http://caesar.acc.umu.se/pub/debian-meetings/2006/debconf6/theora-small/2006-05-14/tower/OpenSolaris_Java_and_Debian-Simon_Phipps__Alvaro_Lopez_Ortega.ogg
  18. Simon Phipps (2006). OpenSolaris and CDDL discussion at Debconf 2006 (Ogg Theora). Debconf 2006. Event occurs at 13:00. ...we have got Danese Cooper in the room, and she is the one who actually wrote the CDDL... http://meetings-archive.debian.net/pub/debian-meetings/2006/debconf6/theora-small/2006-05-14/tower/OpenSolaris_Java_and_Debian-Simon_Phipps__Alvaro_Lopez_Ortega.ogg
  19. Simon Phipps (2006). OpenSolaris and CDDL discussion at Debconf 2006 (Ogg Theora). Event occurs at 36:00. I actually disagree with Danese to some degree... http://meetings-archive.debian.net/pub/debian-meetings/2006/debconf6/theora-small/2006-05-14/tower/OpenSolaris_Java_and_Debian-Simon_Phipps__Alvaro_Lopez_Ortega.ogg
  20. Phipps, Simon (2006-09-04). "Re: Danese Cooper claims CDDL made incompatible with GPL on purpose". OpenSolaris-Discuss List. https://marc.info/?l=opensolaris-discuss&m=115740406507420. ""Nonetheless she is wrong to characterise the opinion of the Solaris engineering team in the way she does. She is speaking this way because she lost an argument inside Sun, not because her view is representative of the views of Sun or its staff in the way she claims. She, along with many actual engineers, was an advocate of using GPL for OpenSolaris but the need to release rather than wait for one of meant that this was not possible. I am still furious with her for the statement she made at DebConf, which was spiteful and an obstacle to a united FOSS movement."" 
  21. Bryan Cantrill (2015-04-06). "I am the CTO of Joyent, the father of DTrace and an OS kernel developer for 20 years. AMA!". reddit.com. https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/31ny87/i_am_the_cto_of_joyent_the_father_of_dtrace_and/cq3bs9z?context=3. ""Question: Was the CDDL designed to prevent Sun technologies from entering Linux? - BC: Great question, and the answer was that we didn't know -- but the expectation was that it would be ported to Linux relatively quickly. I remember vividly standing over a terminal with a bunch of people as we actually launched OpenSolaris (like, clicked carriage return on making the DTrace code live -- which was the first in the chute), and the Sun Legal guy and I were chatting. We were both wondering if DTrace was going to show up in Linux in a month or if it would take two years. But that was the range of guesses: neither of us believed that the Linux community themselves would hold up CDDL as an obstacle, and certainly if you told me that a decade later, DTrace wouldn't be in Linux because of licensing FUD, I wouldn't have believed you. Of course, in hindsight, it all seems so clear: NIH is enormously powerful, and we were fools for discounting it."" 
  22. "cdrtools - a tale of two licenses [LWN.net"]. https://lwn.net/Articles/195167/. 
  23. "Cdrtools (Cdrecord) release information". http://cdrtools.sourceforge.net/private/cdrecord.html. 
  24. "The GNU General Public License". https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html. 
  25. "Die GPL kommentiert und erklärt Online-Version" (in de). O'Reilly. http://www.oreilly.de/german/freebooks/gplger. 
  26. "Neuer Streit um cdrtools" (in de). Pro-Linux. http://www.pro-linux.de/news/1/10155/neuer-streit-um-cdrtools.html. "Laut Aussagen von Jörg Schilling sind die Lizenzen durchaus miteinander kompatibel. Die Regeln werden oftmals falsch ausgelegt. Die Aussagen der FSF-Verantwortlichen seien oft widersprüchlich und in sich nicht schlüssig." 
  27. "OSSCC GPL". http://www.osscc.net/en/gpl.html. 
  28. "Forbidden items - Fedora Project Wiki". https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Forbidden_items#cdrtools. 
  29. Michael Larabel (6 October 2015). "Ubuntu Is Planning To Make The ZFS File-System A "Standard" Offering". Phoronix. https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-ZFS-Standard-Plans. 
  30. Dustin Kirkland (18 February 2016). "ZFS Licensing and Linux". Ubuntu Insights. Canonical. https://insights.ubuntu.com/2016/02/18/zfs-licensing-and-linux/. 
  31. Are GPLv2 and CDDL incompatible? on hansenpartnership.com by James E. J. Bottomley, "What the above analysis shows is that even though we presumed combination of GPLv2 and CDDL works to be a technical violation, there’s no way actually to prosecute such a violation because we can’t develop a convincing theory of harm resulting. Because this makes it impossible to take the case to court, effectively it must be concluded that the combination of GPLv2 and CDDL, provided you’re following a GPLv2 compliance regime for all the code, is allowable." (23 February 2016) http://blog.hansenpartnership.com/are-gplv2-and-cddl-incompatible/
  32. Moglen, Eben; Choudhary, Mishi (26 February 2016). "The Linux Kernel, CDDL and Related Issues". https://softwarefreedom.org/resources/2016/linux-kernel-cddl.html. 
  33. Moglen, Eben; Choudhary, Mishi (26 February 2016). "The Linux Kernel, CDDL and Related Issues". https://softwarefreedom.org/resources/2016/linux-kernel-cddl.html. "Historically, there's been things like the original Andrew filesystem module: a standard filesystem that really wasn't written for Linux in the first place, and just implements a UNIX filesystem. Is that derived just because it got ported to Linux that had a reasonably similar VFS interface to what other UNIXes did? ... Personally, I think that case wasn't a derived work, and I was willing to tell the AFS guys so." 
  34. Copying on git.kernel.org "NOTE! This copyright does *not* cover user programs that use kernel services by normal system calls – this is merely considered normal use of the kernel, and does *not* fall under the heading of "derived work"." https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/COPYING
  35. Software Freedom Law Center Appoints Two New Attorneys to Defend and Support Free and Open Source Software (October 31, 2005) http://www.softwarefreedom.org/news/2005/oct/31/new-attorneys/
  36. GPL Violations Related to Combining ZFS and Linux on sfconservancy.org by Bradley M. Kuhn and Karen M. Sandler "Ultimately, various Courts in the world will have to rule on the more general question of Linux combinations. Conservancy is committed to working towards achieving clarity on these questions in the long term. That work began in earnest last year with the VMware lawsuit, and our work in this area will continue indefinitely, as resources permit. We must do so, because, too often, companies are complacent about compliance. While we and other community-driven organizations have historically avoided lawsuits at any cost in the past, the absence of litigation on these questions caused many companies to treat the GPL as a weaker copyleft than it actually is." (February 25, 2016) https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2016/feb/25/zfs-and-linux/
  37. GPL Violations Related to Combining ZFS and Linux on sfconservancy.org by Bradley M. Kuhn and Karen M. Sandler, "Conservancy (as a Linux copyright holder ourselves), along with the members of our coalition in the GPL Compliance Project for Linux Developers, all agree that Canonical and others infringe Linux copyrights when they distribute zfs.ko." https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2016/feb/25/zfs-and-linux/
  38. "openzfs/zfs" (in en). https://github.com/openzfs/zfs. 
  39. "illumos Distributions". The illumos Family. illumos. 20 March 2017. https://wiki.illumos.org/display/illumos/Distributions. 
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