Re: Licensing questions

On Jan 7, 2005, at 12:58 PM, Dominic Duval wrote:

> Hey Marc,
>
> Note, however, that the information contained in this email summarizes
> my own interpretation of Sun and Blackdown access rules to the Java VM
> source tree and should not be considered legal advice, nor be viewed as
> official answers from Blackdown, my employer, or myself.

Thanks Dominic, I understand and appreciate your interpretation.


>> We want to port Blackdown to a Linux distribution running on a CPU not
>> currently supported. Reading the information on the Blackdown and Sun
>> web sites leaves me with some questions with regards to distributing
>> our build which would be derived from both Sun's source and 
>> Blackdown's
>> patches.
>
> Just our of curiosity, what's that CPU?

Sorry I can't answer that yet, I don't have permission from our 
customer.


>> My main questions are...
>>
>> 1. Does applying the Blackdown patches change any of the licensing
>> requirements. In other words does it add any restrictions to the Sun
>> licensing requirements compared to only using the Sun sources?
>
> Here's how it works: Blackdown has its own CVS where sources are 
> stored.
> In order to get access to that CVS you need to 1) Contact the CVS
> maintainers 2) Have them provide you the contract, which is really
> between you and Sun Microsystems

This sounds great but without getting any replies from the contacts on 
the web site it is difficult!
I understood that some Linux distros (RedHat?) were distributing the 
Blackdown JRE so there must be one live contact email where they were 
able to verify licensing.


> Moreover, the Sun Community License is already restricted enough. You
> can't really use it for a product you'll distribute.

Yes, but I'm trying to find out if there are any additional 
restrictions. For instance, from my understanding of the Sun 
information, you can distribute the JRE (once it has passed the JCK and 
been evaluated by Sun). However, if I've based my JRE on Blackdown 
patches in addition to Sun sources does it change anything?


>> 2. Are the Blackdown patches to the JRE available for download?
>
> Not that I know of. The contract between Blackdown developpers and Sun
> Microsystems allows us to distribute patches, but we need to be 
> *really*
> careful not to provide too much stuff in the patch. That might explain
> why you won't find any Blackdown patch on the Internet. I know I
> wouldn't take the risk to distribute one :)
>
> On the other hand, the way I understand it, the source tree you'll get
> access to from Sun is way different from the one we use for the
> Blackdown project. So a Blackdown patch might now apply cleanly on the
> Sun source tree. Not sure about it though, as I have never downloaded
> sources directly from sun.

That is interesting, I'm not sure it is clear to me. You state "The 
contract between Blackdown developpers and Sun Microsystems allows us 
to distribute patches". If the patches aren't against the Sun source 
(obtained through the SCSL) then how can they be of use to people 
recompiling/porting to their distros?


>> 3. Are the Blackdown patches to the JDK available for download?
>
> See previous answer.
>
>>
>> 4. If the answer to questions 3 and/or 4 is no, is it available if we
>> fax proof that we are licensed. And if so to both the JRE and SDK
>> patches?
>
> No idea. I don't have control over the cvs and/or the registration
> process. Karl Asha does.

Karl was the first contact I tried two months ago but no reply. I'll 
send you a private email if you don't mind verifying have the right 
address. Some the pages on the site may have an old address.

> In my opinion doing this will be difficult.
>
> 			-Dominic

I understand but if we have Sun verify that we are licensed under the 
SCSL is then possible to access the patches?

Thanks Dominic,
Marc


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