licence issues

From day one i've been trying to weigh pros against cons regarding what
licence to publish the work under. The spec has to be completely open and
free, but licence for the java compiler / interpretor has been more
difficult to decide on.

The long term objective is to have everything published that's published
on o:XML free for all non-commercial use. However, i've been doubtful if
enough leverage to establish the technology in an already bloated market
sector can be achieved on a completely voluntary basis.

My worry is that open-sourcing the implementation will eventually lead to
a project that is not coming anywhere near fulfilling its potential.
This is only in respect of the current java implementation, which I have
hopes is the product that will be driving continued interest in o:XML, and
eventually broaden its range of implementations.
If an alternative route can be pursued that will lead to revenue, this
could be reinvested to enforce the project.

So for the first few releases the licence has been limited to dev and
non-commercial use, to keep future options open. I've also been thinking
along the lines of public-source, as opposed to open-source, so that the
sourcecode can be made publicly available.
Or, possibly, a option of GPL for open-sourcerers, and a commercial
licence for those who need more.
But I'm not a lawyer and couldn't tell what the legal implications of this
sort of licence would be, when it comes to redistribution etc.

My greatest concern at the moment is that the proprietary status of the
compiler/interpretor is putting people of the technology as a whole.


/m

Martin Klang
http://www.o-xml.org - the object-oriented XML programming language