CGPL (Common Good Public License) is an open-source copyright/copyleft license provided by cgpl.org, with the current text marked as Beta 1.0. It grants users the rights to own, copy, modify, publish, publicly display/review the original work, and includes a royalty-free, worldwide, perpetual, non-exclusive, non-sublicensable patent license. Its positioning goes beyond a traditional software license: it pays particular attention to the social impact of scenarios where “information and physical objects are interchangeable,” such as digital materialization, personal digital manufacturing, N-dimensional modeling, and multiphysics simulation.
The core of the license is strong copyleft: derivative works must continue to use CGPL, and the distributed or published whole must be licensed to third parties for free under the same license. It requires usable Source Data to be provided upon distribution, or placed in an inexpensive and conveniently accessible information repository. Modified works must clearly indicate the changes and dates, and must retain copyright, patent, trademark, license, and attribution notices. CGPL also treats external deployment—allowing others to use a derivative work over a network—as distribution, similar to a SaaS-oriented trigger mechanism. Unlike common open-source licenses, it adds obligations around environmental responsibility and not violating the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The license text does not mention commercial fees, subscriptions, or support plans; the license itself is royalty-free. In terms of ecosystem, the site says it hopes to collaborate with free software, open source, and other licenses, but it also requires that rights granted by other licenses be “no more and no less” and requires distribution of Source Data, which may make compatibility assessments complicated. The text also explicitly acknowledges that, under the FSF definition of free software, CGPL may not be “Free,” or at least may not be GPL-compatible. There is no evidence in the text that it has been approved by OSI or FSF.
The advantages are that the license covers both copyright and patents, and its rules around open source data, attribution, network deployment, and inheritance by derivative works are relatively clear. It may suit projects that want to build a culture of responsibility around digital manufacturing and high-impact technologies. The downsides are that the human-rights and environmental obligations are fairly abstract, making compliance boundaries hard to operationalize. The documentation is mainly the license text and FAQ, with no compatibility matrix, legal cases, or practical developer guide. The crawled text also includes Bootstrap page content, raising doubts about the site’s information organization quality.
CGPL is suitable for research projects, simulation/manufacturing toolchains, or open knowledge works that want to add ethical, environmental, and social responsibility constraints on top of open sharing. It is not a good fit for projects seeking maximum license compatibility, entry into the mainstream open-source foundation ecosystem, or a clearly defined commercial compliance path. Access from China is not mentioned in the text, so it is unknown; payments are not applicable. For ordinary open-source software licensing, more mainstream alternatives such as GPL, AGPL, MPL, Apache-2.0, and MIT may be better options.
⚠ This review is compiled from public sources and does not constitute a purchase recommendation. Verify all facts on the vendor's official site. Verify on cgpl.org official site.
cgpl.org is an Unknown Dev Tools provider. TG4G tracks its product information, an overall rating of 5.0/10, and a China-accessibility score of China direct-connect friendly. Click "Visit Official Site" to reach cgpl.org directly.