According to its creators, CeCILL was written with French researchers specifically in mind, but can be used by any entity or individual to distribute their software freely and legally.
A lot of free software is currently distributed under the GPL, with other licences such as the Berkeley Software Distribution also popular.
The three departments behind CeCILL say that their licence shares the principles of the GPL, but is designed around French, rather than American, law.
"To date, the majority of French free software are diffused under Anglo-Saxon licences, in particular the General Public License, because free software was initially developed in the United States," said the Commission of Atomic Energy (ECA), the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA), and the National Scientific Research Centre (CNRS).
Some critics, though, have suggested that the French simply wanted to have 'their own' open-source licence. The French branch of the Free Software Foundation told ZDNet France that they were "shocked" that ECA, INRIA and CNRS had not worked with the FSF on the issue, and had instead quietly developed their own version.
The FSF also denied that there was anything wrong with the GPL, pointing out that it is already used by businesses working in France, and even by the French government.
Click here to download a .PDF file of CeCILL.
Talkback
Hi,
If you're using the french abbreviations for the Working group on the licence, the Commission of Atomic Energy is not ECA but CEA (Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique).
Cheers.
It is important that the licenses are compatible but it is also important that licenses are strong with regards to local law.
Bear in mind that these are state run organisations that can't afford uncertainty about these kind of matters. Maybe they could have spoken about that to the FSF but where is the obligation ?
I see as positive that these guys on the contrary took the time and effort to make sure that they could contribute projects to the "free" software community, and make it safely with regards to legal matters