Licenses

The TYPO3 project, represented by the TYPO3 Association, uses different licenses

• for the distribution of software and documentation
• for contributions from individuals and corporations

We chose to distribute licenses as they support the vision and mission of the TYPO3 project:
"Inspiring People to Share" and "Jointly Innovate Excellent Free Software Enabling People to Communicate"

Our Contributor License Agreements are based on the Apache CLA and adapted to our needs. In our search for licenses we have found their model to be the fairest and most effective for both the contributors and the Association.

Generally, contributors retain full rights to use their original work, whilst giving the TYPO3 Association and its projects the right to distribute and build upon their work within the TYPO3 project.

Distribution Licenses

Software distributions are licensed as follows:

• TYPO3 CMS 3.x, 4.x and 6.x are licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2 or later
• TYPO3 Neos CMS (under construction) is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3 or later
• TYPO3 Flow is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License version 3 or later

Contribution Licenses

Contributor License Agreements (CLA)

Starting with TYPO3 version 5, the TYPO3 Association requests all contributors of ideas, code, or documentation to the TYPO3 projects (including TYPO3 Flow) to complete, sign, and submit an individual Contributor License Agreement (CLA). The same is recommended but not mandatory for contributions to TYPO3 CMS.

The purpose of this agreement is to clearly define the terms under which intellectual property has been contributed to TYPO3. We need to have a signed CLA on file before we can grant you commit rights to any of the TYPO3 Neos projects.

A Corporate CLA (CCLA) is available for companies that contribute intellectual property that may have been assigned as part of an employment agreement. Please note: a Corporate CLA does not remove the need for every developer to sign their individual CLA to cover any of their contributions which are not owned by the corporation signing the CCLA.

Download CLA / CCLA

Please download the applicable CLA(s). Please make sure to write clearly. Once you completed and signed the form, please fax it to the TYPO3 Association: +41 (0)41 511 00 39.

Download PDF form for individuals
Download PDF form for corporations

Once we received your CLA(s), we will get back to you as quickly as possible.

Thank you for contributing to TYPO3!

Extensions

Extensions are essentially modifications of the original source code and therefore still fall under the GNU General Public License version 2.
This means you are not allowed to sell the Extension itself directly, but you can offer to write an Extension and get paid for providing that Service instead.

A small example:
If you wrote a "ProductExtension" which allows the creation and display of products, you are not allowed to sell the Extension itself.
However if a customer asks you to create such an extension for them you are of course allowed to charge the customer for the costs involved in creating and maintaining the "ProductExtension" for them.

Remember: the main idea behind TYPO3 and open source is that it's built by the community, for the community.
As a result if you create an extension you can help to improve the TYPO3 ecosystem by delivering it through the TYPO3 Extension Repository (TER).
By publishing your extension you can get support from the community, a wide range of feedback from users all over the world, contributions from others who want to help you improve your extension and potentially improve your coding skills!

Questions?

If you have any questions about TYPO3 software licensing or contributions to TYPO3, please get in touch with us.