Mozilla Public License
Shares rank 2 of 3 open source licenses by recommenders
Recommended as a weak copyleft middle ground that keeps GPL advantages, avoids some of its disadvantages, and includes a patent grant.
7 people recommended Mozilla Public License in Hacker News comments and none criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026.
Summary written by Claude from 7 comments.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- mixed feelings
- 0
- warn against or regret it
- 0
The record
Recommended in 4 of 12 months
In 5 different threads.
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 12 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
- Recommended in 5 threadsNeeds 5 or more, met.
- The biggest thread supplies 29% of its recommendersNeeds half or less, met.
The same rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. Mixed feelings count toward neither side. How the badge works
What people say about it
Reasons grouped from a sample of 7 of the 7 opinions about it, picked in proportion to how many people recommend it, have mixed feelings and criticize it. Each mark is one comment in the sample. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Weak copyleft middle ground
“I do wish that weak copyleft like the Mozilla Public License had caught on as a sort of middle ground”
Comment from 28 Dec 2025 in “Gpg.fail” “generally at least weak (LGPL or MPL) copyleft are preferred”
Comment from 8 May 2026 in “AI Slop Is Killing Online Communities” “I find its clauses a reasonable middle ground.”
Comment from 13 Nov 2025 in “Android 16 QPR1 is being pushed to the Android Open Source Project” Preferred license for many recommenders
“my preferred license is the Mozilla Public License”
Comment from 9 Nov 2025 in “Ask HN: How do you get over the fear of sharing code?” “The closest you can get is probably MPL-2.0.”
Comment from 13 Nov 2025 in “Android 16 QPR1 is being pushed to the Android Open Source Project”
Other open source licenses people recommend
The two most recommended other open source licenses, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Mixed | Criticize | Approval | Months | Had for | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GNU Affero General Public License v3 | 19 | 2 | 0 | 100% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Mozilla Public LicenseThis page | 7 | 0 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
| MIT License | 7 | 2 | 5 | 58% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
All 7 opinions about it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“generally at least weak (LGPL or MPL) copyleft are preferred”
“equivalent licenses with patent grant protection”
“IMO it has all the advantages of the GPL and lacks the disadvantages”
“I do wish that weak copyleft like the Mozilla Public License had caught on as a sort of middle ground”
“I find its clauses a reasonable middle ground.”
“The closest you can get is probably MPL-2.0.”
“my preferred license is the Mozilla Public License”
Counts come from 1,791,911 Hacker News comments labeled by Claude, November 2025 to October 2026, with data through October 31, 2026. Counts updated 2 Nov 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.