Subj : Re: Rhino... WHICH licence is required??
To   : netscape.public.mozilla.jseng
From : igor.bukanov
Date : Wed May 18 2005 03:16 am

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=236108 is about changing
Rhino to use MIT license instead of the current NPL/GPL duo. I opened
the bug when having LGPL as an option would simplify packaging in a
commercial product that included rhino and LGPL library.

So the idea was to relicense Rhino under MPL/GPL/LGPL trio which I
believed mozilla.org could do due to special NPL provisions. Later it
was agreed that a better option for Rhino would be to apply that
special provision to chnage the license to  MIT one which would
accommodate Apache folks as well.

Unfortunately the issue never went farther then talks. It turned out
that a special rights that NPL grants Netscape Communications
Corporation and which would effectively allows Netscape to release code
under any license  was not transfered to Mozilla in the case of Rhino
sources. Or at least nobody was able to say that for sure.

Thus the only real possibility for license change would require
approval of ALL contributors to Rhino and their employers. So far
nobody was able to commit enough resources to do that. 

Regards, Igor

.