See the EPL FAQ quesiton 14:
Does the EPL allow you to take the source code for a program licensed for it and include all or part of it in another program licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL), Berkeley Software Distribution License (BSD), or another Open Source license ?
Not. Only the software owner can decide how and how to license it to others. Members of a program licensed under the EPL understand that the source code for the Program will be available in accordance with the terms of the EPL. If you do not own the software or have not received permission from the owner, you do not have the right to apply the terms of another license to the Program by including it in the program whose license is provided by another open source license.
This way, of course, you cannot re-license the clojure code with any other license (only the owner of the code has this theoretical right), and if you change the clojure EPL license code, you can only release the derived code under the EPL.
Regardless of whether you have a BSD license (or use a different license), your own source code written in clojure (which will obviously depend on the libraries licensed by the EPL to run) will be more subtle. The answer depends on the interpretation of what constitutes “derivative work”.
See the EPL FAQ question :
Some open source software communities define what they mean by derivative work. Does the Eclipse Foundation have a position on this?
As described in Article 1 (b) (ii) of the Eclipse Public License, "... Contributions do not include additions to the Program, which: (i) are separate software modules distributed in conjunction with the Program in accordance with their own license agreement and (ii) are not derivative works of the Program. " The definition of derivative work depends on copyright laws of different jurisdictions. The Eclipse Public License is governed by U.S. law. Under the United States Copyright Act, “derivative work” is defined as “... a work based on one or more of the previous works, such as translation, music, dramatization, fiction, movie version, sound recording, reproduction of works of art, reduction, condensation or any other form in which a work may be remade, transformed, or adapted, a work consisting of editorial changes, annotations, developments, or other modifications that generally represent This original work of authorship is “derivative work.” The Eclipse Foundation interprets the term “derivative work” in a manner consistent with the definition in the United States Copyright Law that applies to computer software. You will need to ask your own lawyer for advice. when deciding whether your program is derivative.
It is likely, but not guaranteed, that you can reasonably license your own BSD-licensed modules. However, you are going to increase the complexity of the situation for any users of your code, and you will need to clearly distinguish between different licenses. Using the EPL pragmatically will be much more direct for everyone.
Alex stoddard
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