License concept

The license concept for the software is as follows:

The framework and the modules are available under the GNU General Public License, GPL (see the version in the download section, and the GNU website).

This means, in brief, that you are free to use the software; you may redistribute and change the software, but you need to make available all changes that you have done, as open source, plus you need to lay open as open source all software that you distribute and use together with the framework. E.g., if you would like to use and distribute some of the modules that are developed in the project together with other software that you use, you must make available this other software, too.

An important part of the GPL is

"2 b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
    whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any
    part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third
    parties under the terms of this License."

"As a whole" is quite clear: If you distribute the software with other software, this other software needs to be (made) open source as well.

Funding project members, however, receive the software under the Mozilla Public License (MPL) 1.1. If you have done any changes as a funding project member to the software, you need to make the changes available as well, but you have additionally the right to

Choose the type of license for the modified software (MPL 1.1, Lesser General Public License, or GNU General Public License); and
Distribute the modified software together with other software without making this other software available as open source.

An interesting part of the MPL 1.1 is

" 3.7. Larger Works.

You may create a Larger Work by combining Covered Code with other code not governed by the terms of this License and distribute the Larger Work as a single product. In such a case, You must make sure the requirements of this License are fulfilled for the Covered Code."

"Larger Work" may here be other software where you integrate our source code, covered code is here the source code of the openLCA framework.

For your information, the licenses are given here in the download and resources section; MPL 1.1 is also available here.

We are aware that the license concept is (usually!) one of the most obfuscated aspects of an open source project; don't hesitate to contact us if you have questions.