FreedomBox and the Mozilla Public License

[Matt Campbell]

I have been watching the thread about FreedomBox's supposed violation of 
the Mozilla Public License, and I wish to publicly set the record straight.

Section 3.2 of the MPL does clearly say that any modifications to 
covered code must be released as source code.  However, we did not need 
to make any modifications to Mozilla to add speech output or voice 
commands.  As Aaron Leventhal said, we were able to do it by writing a 
new component that uses Mozilla's existing application programming 
interfaces (API's).  Therefore, we are not obligated to release the code 
that adds speech output and voice commands.

While I would prefer to release our ocde under an open-source license, I 
understand and respect Serotek's reasons for not doing so.  The company 
needs to protect its intellectual proprety.  I think we've made a good 
compromise by making the software available at no cost to the user.  
Furthermore, uninformed public statements such as those made about the 
alleged license violation only tarnish the reputation of a company 
that's trying to do good for the community while still doing well.

For more information about the Mozilla Public License, read the FAQ, 
which is available at:

http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/FAQ.html

If you have further questions or concerns, please contact me privately; 
I don't believe this discussion is appropriate for the Speakup list.  
Thank you.

-- 
Matt Campbell
Lead Programmer
Serotek Corporation
www.freedombox.info