On Wednesday the Apache Group announced the formation of the
Apache Software Foundation. The main aim of the foundation is
to provide a legal framework for Apache and related
open-source projects such as the recently announced Jakarta initiative.
The foundation has been established as a non-profit
corporation with members and directors taken from the core
contributors from each project. As the foundation is a legal
entity it can accept donations and provide financial support
to the projects as well as being able to deal with legal
issues such as exposure and protection of intellectual
property.
The formation of the foundation does not mean that Apache has
become commercial. The Apache web server will remain
open-source under the existing license.
The
full press release is available from the Apache site. The
www.apache.org home page
has also been redesigned to give full details of the new
foundation as well as each of the current projects.