The Common Public Attribution License ("CPAL") is a free software license approved by the Open Source Initiative in 2007. Its purpose is to be a general license for software distributed over a network. It is based on the Mozilla Public License, but it adds an attribution term paraphrased below:

The CPAL also adds the following section discussing "network use" which triggers copyleft provisions when running CPAL licensed code on a network service and this way closing the so-called ASP loophole:

The Debian project found the license to be incompatible with its Free Software Guidelines (DFSG) because of its attribution requirement.

References

External links

• CPAL version 1.0 text at the Open Source Initiative

• Jonathan Corbet on July 31, 2007 on LWN.net: "Open-source badgeware", discussing problematic attribution requirements