Common Development and Distribution License

The Common Development and Distribution License ( CDDL ) is an open - source license, which was created by Sun Microsystems, based on the Mozilla Public License Version 1.1. The CDDL was sent to the Open Source Initiative for clarification on 1 December 2004 and found mid-January 2005 for open source compatible.

The CDDL is also published by the Free Software Foundation ( FSF ) is recognized as free license. This recommends their use, however, does not coincide with their own GNU General Public License ( GPL). The CDDL is incompatible with the GPL as part of a derivative work. The CDDL contains a clause under which the license for a particular licensee is invalid if these licensees legal action against the licensor undertakes, referring to might be affected by the Work licensed patents. In this case, the license within 60 days is forfeited if the patent application is not withdrawn in the meantime. However, the current version of the GPL preclude the simultaneous use of a license (in the context of a derivative work ), the additional restrictions ( here: the prohibition of patent lawsuits against developer / licensor ) contains from.

The CDDL allows the simultaneous existence of different licenses with code side by side, as long as this does not change the license conditions of the placed under the CDDL program parts. Under the CDDL published code may be circulated even when changing only by preserving the text of the license.

On 14 June 2005, the source code developed by Sun Microsystems Solaris operating system was provided by the Open Solaris project under the CDDL and thus provided as open source software.