| Common Public Attribution License | |
| Author: | Socialtext |
| Version: | 1.0 |
| Copyright: | Socialtext |
| Date: | July 2007 |
| Osi Approved: | Yes |
| Debian Approved: | No |
| Free Software: | Yes[1] |
| Gpl Compatible: | No |
| Copyleft: | Limited[2] |
| Linking: | Yes |
The Common Public Attribution License ("CPAL") is a free software license approved by the Open Source Initiative in 2007.[3] 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)[4] because of its attribution requirement.