Squeak licensing questions

Paul Fernhout pdfernhout at kurtz-fernhout.com
Wed Nov 25 14:00:42 UTC 1998


Dear Squeakers,

I have a few questions about the Squeak license and was wondering if
people on the list could help me out in getting them answered.
Definitive answers from authoritative source are especially welcome,
however general kibitzing would be of interest to me as well, especially
in terms of pointing out questions I haven't thought to ask.

1. Are all the releases of Squeak (including the ones by Disney, with a
Disney copyright) under the same license?

2. Are all the add-ons included in the Squeak distribution (like the
pluggable web server) under the same license? If not, which ones are
under a different license and what are the licensing terms? Is there any
formal process by which permission is given for various contributions to
be under the terms of the Squeak license? (For instance, I think the FSF
has contributors to certain projects like GCC sign something and
snail-mail it in.) If not, could use of included software or patches
later be claimed successfully not to be really covered by the Squeak
license? Is there anything special about Squeak and Smalltalk that make
the issue of accepting user contributions different then say for the
open source Python project (which is used by several companies and
NASA)?

3. Are the various VMs and supporting code and documentation (Windows,
UNIX, LINUX, Acorn, etc.) entirely under the Squeak license? If not, how
much of them is, and what are the terms for the rest of the package?

4. Is there any other software available to work with Squeak and
commonly used and expected to be used with it (not part of the Disney
distribution) which is under the same Squeak licensing terms? Are there
any such products under significantly different terms (GPL, PD, BSD,
non-commercial use only, shareware, ad-hoc, etc.)?

5. Can one maintain a clean distinction between changes to the VM and
code the VM calls? If so, how? For example, if you link in a 3D graphics
package written in C, with a few primitives to call it, would that be
considered part of the VM and then subject to free redistribution of
source and binary? Or would just the VM code changes but not the called
code (in effect, just part of the 3D API adapted to Squeak) have to be
given away? Would the supporting Smalltalk code to use the VM changes
also have to be distributed? Does it matter if the code linked in to the
VM is your own code or that of a third party vendor licensed as a
library? Does it make a difference if the new VM code is written in
Smalltalk and generated into C as part of the VM, as opposed to the new
code being written in C and patched into an already generated VM?

6. Is there a list of major corporations besides Apple and Disney (like
GE, GM, Walmart, Microsoft, etc.) who have gotten the Squeak software
approved by internal Intellectual Property (IP) lawyers for use for R&D,
in-house tools, making an external demonstration, or shipping a product?
Would any of those IP lawyers (or ones at Disney or Apple) be willing to
talk to other IP lawyers in other companies about Squeak licensing
issues?

7. What is the current status of fonts -- i.e. does that issue of not
distributing the Apple fonts still apply, and are those fonts still
included with Squeak? If so, how are they removed and replaced in a way
that would allow one to ship or demonstrate a product incorporating
Squeak?

8. If one builds Squeak into a hardware product (for sale or
demonstration), does any of the source need to be distributed? If so,
what part and when?

9. In general, how soon after release of a modified VM or software with
modified base class methods does the source need to be released? (I've
heard of this loophole cited as a reason not to release source when
asked).

10. Are there any other licensing issues involving Squeak that have come
up which I (or an IP lawyer, which I am not) should be thinking about if
Squeak is going to be used in a major company? Are there any random
"gotchas" in the license an IP lawyer will flag, and if so, are there
any ways around them?

The closest thing I've seen in the recent past to a discussion on these
issues is "Squeak 2.0 for Debian GNU/Linux" Thu, 9 Jul 1998 21:55:53
+0200 From: Marcus Denker <marcus at ira.uka.de>, where he brought up the
font issue, and mentioned that export law restrictions restrict Squeak
from being part of the Debian distribution (because it would restrict
what countries could receive the distribution). Presumably this export
law restriction would not be a major problem for a US division of a
company making any product using Squeak for distribution, since it is
legally bound by that law itself. Are there any other recent discussions
of licensing issues I should be aware of?

It has been said "Don't worry. Apple has already forgot about it..." in
terms of the license and its enforcement. However that probably won't
cut it with IP lawyers of a major corporation. These are sorts of
questions such a lawyer might ask, and it would be nice to have ready
answers available for anyone contemplating getting Squeak into their
organization.

-Paul Fernhout
Kurtz-Fernhout Software http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com
=========================================================
Developers of custom software and educational simulations
Creators of the open source Garden with Insight(TM) garden simulator
Creators of the StoryHarp(TM) Audioventure Authoring System





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