Re: Licensing questions

On Jan 7, 2005, at 6:15 PM, Calvin Austin wrote:

> Lots of difficult questions here. Joining the blackdown porting project
> means you use the blackdown binary license etc.

I think joining the Blackdown project would be best for us in order to 
get a more recent and stable base and to be able to contribute the code 
for the CPU which is currently not supported.

BTW, I went to verify how the "blackdown binary license" would be 
different from the Sun license with regards to distribution with a 
distro. However after downloading twice from the ftp.tux.org mirror the 
LICENSE file at the root of the 1.4.2-01 directory appears to be 
corrupt. In the SUPPLEMENTAL LICENSE TERNS sub-section B. is truncated 
at "... agree to defe". Sub-section C. has a (v) clause with no text. 
Sub-section E. is truncated at "... reproduced in its enti". Could 
someone please verify this file?


> If you want to talk to someone at Sun let me know and I'll forward your
> questions on

Thanks, Calvin I will take you up on that offer. My first question is 
whether we need a separate commercial license to distribute the JRE and 
JDK with our distro? If so what is the fee schedule for the license?

Thanks,
Marc

> Marc St-Jean wrote:
>
>> 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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