License Wave

Surfing the license wave.   I need help.

I read
http://luxor-xul.sourceforge.net/luxorfaq.html
and also looked at the archives for license information.
http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=2491622
BTW, I am not sure what the endowment fund does for you, Gerald.

1)
a) Are you the Luxor Foundation?
b) You live off of the endowment?
c) You get money?
Yes, I am a little confused.  ;)

More importantly:
As you may recall, I did the tutorial at the luxor-contrib website and 
saw the huge number of jars / projects that Luxor XUL relies on.  Since 
Luxor XUL is GPL, I assume all the things Luxor depends on are GPL or 
less restrictive.
2) Right?


(Correct me if I am wrong, but...) Emacs is a GPL tool which can be 
used by anyone to edit a file.  Even if I am making software for my job 
and using emacs to make the files, the GPL license does not apply.  The 
reason GPL does not apply is because I am not making derived works; I 
am just using the editor.  Even though the editor is making the files, 
the editor does not need to be deployed with the files.  Therefore, 
those files are not GPL.  (That reasoning may not hold water..... hmmm)
3) Right?

4) I need a book to help me navigate this open source license stuff.   
Yes, I have read and lost a lot of time reading the licenses myself via 
browser.  However, I need examples.   I am fighting the urge to just 
turn up my nose at all Open Source stuff due to the license complexity. 
   I actually know some people who will not even consider ANY open 
source code because they are afraid of getting in license trouble at 
work.  However, I get the feeling that when I "get it" the effort will 
be worth it.  Personal balance between commercial and open source will 
have been achieved.

5) *FAQ Worthy if refactored?*
Does Luxor XUL fall into the category of just using the product and 
thus the final result is not GPL?  If I am using Luxor XUL to make GUI 
stuff, the GUI stuff it produces does not fall under GPL.  Basically, I 
can make an application and tie in my logic into the Luxor XUL GUI 
stuff.  Ah....  However, to deploy I need the Luxor XUL stuff and all 
the jars it depends on don't I?  Therefore, the whole application would 
have to be GPL and that would not be acceptable to my company.   Am I 
right?

6)
If I contribute to Luxor XUL, and get a "commercial license" can I do 
whatever I want with the code?   Can I even re-release it to the 
general public under an MIT or BSD license?  I bet the license would 
say something like "agree to not release the source code".  Correct?   
Can I see an example of what a commercial license would look like?   I 
really could see a use in using this product at work someday, maybe, 
perhaps.. It depends.   I would have to learn more about it; try it out 
more.

7) What if a person works on the XUL project and there is a dispute as 
to how much a person needs to have worked in order to get a commercial 
license?  How can we squish that concern so that people will contribute?

Thanks,
Michael Finney
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java 2 Platform
Sun Certified Developer for the Java 2 Platform
Sun Certified Web Component Developer for J2EE Platform
Co-founder of PPJDG - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ppjdg



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