The jQuery developers have dropped the GPL (General Public Licence) from the dual licensing of the popular JavaScript library in recent releases of jQuery Core, UI, Mobile and other projects. The changes were announced in a blog post; the foundation says they are designed to eliminate confusion and make things easier for the foundation to manage, and they leave jQuery projects licensed under only the MIT licence, the other licence of the previous dual licensing.

The Foundation confirms that with the MIT licence, if someone desires GPL licensing, they are free to make changes and re-license it under the GPL. Some users were surprised by the change and reported the lack of GPL licensing as a bug. The task of updating the web site has yet to be completed.

The jQuery Foundation is also working on developing a paper trail of contributors to avoid possible interruptions to the licensing of the jQuery code and documentation. They will now be requiring that contributors sign a Contributor Licence Agreement (CLA), while jQuery team members will sign their copyrights over to the foundation using a Copyright Assignment Agreement. A search of the site shows that details of the actual agreements are not currently available.

(djwm)