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@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
- Are all the add-ons included in the Squeak distribution (like the
pluggable web server) under the same license?
I know probably less than most about copyright laws and intellectual property issues. But I can tell you something about the PWS licensing.
I knew enough about the issues that I knew I needed to get permission from the University before the PWS went out with Squeak. So, I hunted up the University lawyers. I made the case that releasing PWS was good PR for Georgia Tech, and that PWS had little commercial value itself (re: recent thread on PWS vs. Apache).
What the University lawyers agreed to was that (a) Tech retains ownership of PWS (which Dan and the Team agreed could go in a class comment) but (b) Tech gives anyone the right to use/modify/extend it. I don't know how this compares to any other kinds of licensing terms, but it clearly doesn't limit any use of PWS.
Mark
-------------------------- Mark Guzdial : Georgia Tech : College of Computing : Atlanta, GA 30332-0280 (404) 894-5618 : Fax (404) 894-0673 : guzdial@cc.gatech.edu http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/people/Faculty/Mark.Guzdial.html
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