Eclipse was contributed to the open-source community under the Common Public License (CPL). The CPL essentially grants rights for anyone to update and/or re-distribute the code, so long as they do not create a liability for the original author. Plug-in's may have their own licensing, and distributing them with Eclipse does not create a derivative work The text of the CPL can be obtained at http://www-124.ibm.com/developerworks/oss/ CPLv1.0.htm and you can learn more about the CPL and Eclipse by reading the Eclipse .org Legal Frequently Asked Questions at http://www.eclipse .org/legal/legalfaq.html or the Common Public License Frequently Asked Questions at http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/os-cplfaq.html. These documents are for informational purposes only, please see your attorney for legal advice.