I'm interested in Mule ESB but I dont understand the licence, could someone explan me the CPAL licence in simple words?
We have a commercial porduct (JavaEE web application) that neads to be integrated with solutions that are hosting in the cliens environment. For example a clienat has a SAP instalation or any other source of data and want to integrate it with our java web application. We woud like to Mule to achive this functionality, does the CPAL licence allow this?
Our application and Mule could be hosting on our internal machinery or at the clients, both ways are possible.
First: I do not know anything about law.
That said, the CPAL license is based on Mozilla Public License, which is less strict than GPL and you can mix license rather freely as long as the code stays open.
CPAL introduces a concept, that if you run your application with CPAL code in it (Mule for instance), as a "Cloud" service, then you will have to give out the code as well. Simply put, if you alter the Mule source code and host it as a cloud service, you will have to give out your modifications.
I really recommend you to talk to a lawyer in your area (which knows the local laws and immaterial laws etc). However, I do know about a few companies that "bundles" Mule CE with commercial products without concern for license issues in a way very similar to your situation.
来源：https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10914647/cpal-mule-licence