Drupal licensing FAQ

Ready to translate Drupal licensing reference material , which includes, inter alia, the use of Drupal code and other content from the Drupal.org project site, the specifics of licensing and the use of connecting modules, as well as some explanations of the GPL license and explanations about the Drupal trademark .

These questions and answers will help clarify legal issues in relation to the licensing of the Drupal project and the GNU General Public License. Thank the Software Freedom Law Center for their help in preparing this information.


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1. What is the license for Drupal?

Drupal and all contributory files hosted on Drupal.org are licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2 or later . This means that you can freely download, use, modify and distribute any files hosted in the Git repositories on Drupal.org under the terms of the license as GPL version 2 or version 3, and run Drupal to combine with any code distributed under any a license that is compatible with version 2 or 3, such as the Affero General Public License (AGPL) version 3.

2. Does the license apply only to PHP or all?

We require that all files (PHP, JavaScript, images, flash, etc.) hosted on Drupal.org be licensed under the GPL. If it is not in Git, then it must be the same license (GPL license version 2 or later). This option allows you to not worry about the license of the file.

3. Who owns the copyright to Drupal?

Drupal and the modules and themes provided include code written by thousands of different people. All Drupal contributors retain copyright on their code, but agree to publish it under the same license as Drupal. If you are unable or unwilling to submit a patch under the terms of the GPL license version 2 or later, do not submit a patch.

4. I want to publish my work under the GPL version 3 license or only under the GPL version 2. Can I do this and post it on Drupal.org?

Not. You can publish your work under a license compatible with the GPL license version 2 or later, however, you can simply note in the Drupal Git repositories if you publish under the same license as Drupal itself, and then the GPL license is applied version 2 or later, which allows users to choose between the terms of the GPL version 2 license and the terms of any newer version published by the FSF. If you are unable or unwilling to do this, do not check it out in the Drupal Git repository.

5. What is the content license for Drupal.org?

All content available on Drupal.org belongs to its original contributors and is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license 2.0 license . Sample code is also available under GPL version 2 or later.

6. The GPL license requires me to distribute the “source code” of my files. What does this mean for a web application?

The “source code” of a file means a format that can be edited by a human. What this means depends on the specific file.

• For PHP code, the PHP file itself without any compression or obfuscation is the source code. Note that in Drupal, the template files are PHP code.
• For JavaScript code, the JavaScrpt file itself without any compression or obfuscation is the source code.
• For CSS code, the CSS file itself without any compression or obfuscation is the source code.
• For images, the concept of "source code" is different. Depending on the image, this may mean a production version of the file, such as a PNG or GIF, or the original high resolution JPG, or a Photoshop, Illustrator, or GIMP program file. “Source Code” means any possible version intended for human editing.
• For flash files, the source code means the editable FLA and AS files, as well as any other files needed to create the final SWF file. The SWF file itself is a version of the “object code”, and not a version of the source code.

7. If I create a module or theme, should I apply a GPL license to them?

Yes. Modules and themes for Drupal are derived from Drupal. If you distribute them, you must do so under the terms of the GPL license version 2 or later. However, you do not have to distribute them all. (see question 8 below)
However, when you distribute your work for Drupal, it is important to keep in mind that the GPL license applies to it. The GPL code license is applied to code that interacts with the code, but not the data. So, the PHP code Drupal is licensed under the GPL, and therefore all PHP code that interacts with it must also be licensed under the GPL or the GPL-compatible license. The images, javascript and flash files that PHP sends to the browser are not covered by the GPL, because it is data. However, Drupal JavaScript, which includes a copy of jQuery that is part of Drupal, is distributed under the terms of the GPL, so JavaScript that interacts in the browser with Javascript from Drupal must also be distributed under the terms of the GPL or a license compatible with the GPL.
When you distribute your module or theme, the GPL applies to any piece that directly interacts with parts of Drupal that is licensed under the GPL. This does not apply to images you create and flash files. However, if you make a new image based on an image from Drupal, which is distributed under the terms of the GPL, then that image must also be licensed under the GPL.
If you uploaded a module or theme to the Drupal Git repository, then all elements of your work must be licensed under the terms of a GPL license version 2 or later, and you must provide their source code. This means all files in an editable format, as described above.

8. If I create a module or theme, should I present it to anyone?

Not. The GPL license requires that if you create a derivative work from Drupal and distribute it to someone, you must provide the person with its source code under the terms of the GPL so that it can be modified and distributed under the terms of the GPL. However, you are not required to distribute the code to anyone. If you do not distribute the code, but only use it in your organization, you are not obliged to provide it to anyone.
However, if your module is a general purpose, it is often a good idea to provide the code to the community after all. You can receive feedback, error messages and patches of new functionality from other people for whom your module will be useful.

9. Can I sell Drupal, a module for Drupal or a theme for Drupal?

Yes. However, you must distribute it under the terms of the GPL license version 2 or later, so what you sell must also be available for modification and distribution. See questions 6 and 7 above.

10. Can I write a “glue module” for interaction between Drupal and another system or library?

It depends on the other system.
It is acceptable to distribute a module that communicates with a third-party system via HTTP, XML-RPC, SOAP, or another wired protocol that leaves the third-party system unaffected. Examples of such systems include Flickr, Mollom or certain dependency systems.
It is permissible to distribute a module that integrates with a third-party PHP or JavaScript library, for as long as the library is available under both a GPL license and a GPL-compatible license. Examples of compatible licenses include “permitting” licenses such as BSD / MIT or Lesser General Public License (LGPL). The Free Software Foundation maintains a list of popular GPL-compatible licenses .
It is not permissible to distribute a module that combines with Drupal a library distributed under a license that is not compatible with the GPL, because such a module will be derived from both Drupal and another library, and thus violate both the GPL and the license of another library . Please keep in mind that this applies to some open source software licenses that for some reason are incompatible with the GPL, such as the PHP license used in most PEAR packages.
If you want to load the glue module into the Drupal Git repository, please do not include it in the third-party library. Such an action will create a fork of such a third-party library, which will make support more difficult and only take up disk space. Instead, provide detailed instructions for users to download and install such a third-party library for use with your module. If you believe that your module is a special case that requires mandatory inclusion in the Git repository, usually only because you need to make significant modifications to its work, please post a question in the Licensing Working Group’s questions queue for an initial discussion of your question. .

11. Do I have to provide my site code to any of its visitors?

Not. The GPL license does not consider viewing the site as a “distribution” case, so you are not required to provide code that runs on your server.

12. Will Drupal be distributed under the GPL version 3 license?

Since Drupal is licensed under the terms of the GPL version 2 license or later, Drupal may be distributed under the terms of the GPL version 3 license. Currently there are no plans to distribute Drupal only under the terms of the license version 3 or later. However, this option may be considered in the future.

13. I found a module or theme in the contributors repository that is distributed only under the terms of the GPL version 2 license or only under the terms of the GPL version 3 license. What should I do?

Please place the question in the queue of individual projects with a link to this page If the maintainer does not provide any answer, you can move it to the Licensing Working Group's queue of questions , and we will figure out what's wrong.

14. I found a module or theme in the contributors repository that is distributed under license terms other than the GPL (including the LGPL or AGPL). What should I do?

Please place the question in the Licensing Working Group's queue of questions , and we will figure out what's wrong.

15. I have a question to which there is no answer here. What should I do?

If you have a general question about licensing Drupal or other legal issues, please post your question in the Legal Group at Groups.Drupal.org .
If you have a question about a specific case, please consult a lawyer specializing in copyright issues in your area. We cannot and will not offer legal advice.

16. Why is Drupal a registered trademark of Dries Beuert? Does this mean that it is not free?

The software itself is completely free and available under the GPL license. However, the Drupal name is a registered trademark "to create equal conditions for everyone who is interested in using the Drupal trademark."