CHAPTER 3: REDISTRIBUTION

A license is a permission given by the copyright owner to the licensee. In other words, the
copyright owner had agreed to permit the licensee to take actions such as copying or distributing
the work that would otherwise be prohibited by law. For instance, the copyright owner agrees
that the licensee can only creating or distributing a certain number of copies or perhaps paying
royalty to the copyright owner on each copy that had been distributed.
3.1- Apache License and Eclipse Public License
Under the part of redistribution in the Apache License Agreement, it stated that, in order
for anyone to reproduce or distribute copies of the Work or Derivative Works in any medium,
whether with or without modifications, and whether in Source or Object form, that person must
fulfil the terms of this agreement.1 The first conditions that must to be fulfilled is that, the person
who wants to redistribute must give any other recipients of the Work or Derivative Works, a copy
of this License. Secondly, the person also must cause any modified files to carry prominent
notices stating by changing the files. Thirdly, that person must retain all copyright, patents,
trademarks and attribution notices in the same Source form of any Derivative Works that he/she
distributes excluding those notices which do not pertain to any part of the Derivative Works.
Lastly, it stated that if the Work includes a NOTICE text file as part of its distribution, then any
Derivative Work that the person who wants to distribute must include a readable copy of the
attribution notices contained within the NOTICE file, excluding those notices which do not
pertain Derivative Works. The person who wants to distribute it must include or display it in at
least one of the following places: which is within a NOTICE text file distributed as part of the
Derivative Works or within a display generated by the Derivative Works, or within the Source
form if provided along with the Derivative Works or wherever such third-party notices usually
appear. Furthermore, that person can add his/her own copyright statement to his modifications
and may also provide additional license terms and conditions for use, reproduce and distribution
of his/her modifications provided that his/her use, reproduction and distribution of the Work
complies with the terms and conditions state under the Apache License.
1 Rowan Wilson, 'An Introduction to Ownership and Licensing Issues' (Oss Watch 2013) <http://osswatch.ac.uk/resources/iprguide#licence-compatibility> accessed 30 July 2014

In addition, under this license, it allows the person who had modified or made
improvements to the Apache code, to distribute the modified result to others. He/she can give
his/her modified code away for free or sell it or even keep it to himself/herself subject to the
terms and conditions of the Apache license. Moreover, the person can distribute the modified
result under different license but he/she need to acknowledge the use of the Foundations
software. However, he/she cannot call his/her modified code as Apache. But he/her can use the
phrasing such as powered by Apache or based on Apache. For instance, it would be
acceptable to use a name like SuperDuperWonderServer powered by Apache. In the aspect of
translating the Apache license into other language, anyone may translate it into his/her local
language but it is only for the convenience of understanding and it is not legally binding. Only
the English-language version which must continue to include into the packaging, is authoritative
and applicable in case legal interpretation is required.
In the Eclipse Public License (EPL), it grants the rights to anyone to copy, adapt and
distribute the program in Source form or Object code form. It also allows anyone to distribute the
code in object code form alone under different license provided that the license must be
compatible with the Eclipse Public License. Furthermore, EPL grants right to distribute Work
which contain the code in combination with the new code modules or modified code and to
license the new code modules in any way which distributor wants. In the aspect of commercial
distribution, if a Contributor includes the code or Program in commercial product offering, it
means that such Contributor which known as Commercial Contributor agrees to defend other
Contributors that known as Indemnified Contributor against any damages and losses that arise
from claims or other legal actions brought by third-party against the Indemnified Contributor
caused by the acts of Commercial Contributor in connection with its distribution of the Program
in a commercial product offering.
3.2- Compatibility with Copyright Act 1987
First of all, the Apache License and Eclipse Public License are compatible with Copyright Act
1987 under Section 27(3)2 where it stated that all licenses whether it is exclusive or non-

2 Copyright Act 1987, s.27 (3)

exclusive, it has to be in writing in order for it to have a legal effect. Both of the licenses are
clearly compatible with this requirement as it is in writing form.
The Apache License and Eclipse public license has both sets out their terms for anyone to
distribute it. This is compatible under Section 27(2) of Copyright Act 1987 3 as stated that an
assignment or license may deal with all the exclusive rights or may be limited so as to apply to
only some of the rights or only part of the duration of the copyright or to a specific country. For
instance, the copyright owner can grant the license to anyone to reproduce or distribute the
copyright work in specific media or format. This can be seen in the case of Rock Records (M)
Sdn Bhd v Audio One Entertainment Sdn Bhd.4 In this case, the court stated that, the rights of the
copyright owner to control the reproduction of the sound recording in various material forms can
be divided into various media in which the sound recordings were embodied. Therefore, a
licensed that been granted by the copyright owner to reproduce the sound recordings in the form
of the cassette format did not extend the right to reproduce the sound recordings in video
compact disc.
In the aspect of the reproduction or redistribution of the translation license, both of the Apache
and Eclipse Public License allows the license to be translated into other language but must only
be for the convenience of understanding. It is compatible with Section 31(1) of Copyright Act
19875 which provided that anyone can apply to the Tribunal in order, to produce or publish the
license in national language or other vernacular languages in Malaysia. Section 31(2) stated that
the Tribunal may grant the license on the condition that the applicant shall pay the owner of the
right of translation in respect of the copies sold to the public, a royalty at a rate that would be
determined by the Tribunal.6 Furthermore, the compatibility can also be seen under Section 31(3)
(h) which requires that the translation must be only for the purpose of teaching or research.7

3 Copyright Act 1987, s.27 (2)

4 [2004] AMEJ 0144; [2005] 3 MLJ 552
5 Copyright Act 1987, s.31 (1)
6 Copyright Act 1987, s.31 (2)

7 Copyright Act 1987, 31 (3) (h)