Cees De Groot wrote:
> Read the license on
> http://croquetproject.org/Croquet_Technologies/license.html - that's
> the only license you're going to get when you download Croquet.

Actually no. It's the only license we require you to *accept* before you 
get the download. Once you start Croquet you will find that a "jump to 
previous project" will get you into a vanilla 3.6 image (including 
pointers to the Squeak license [*]) - with the Croquet code loaded from 
the "build/build.st" file. In other words, this is strictly a preloaded 
image.

[*] Much to my surprise I have just noted that a copy of Squeak-L is not 
included in Croquet but then it isn't included in Squeak 3.6 either.

> Viewpoints Research Institute effectively gives you a license to
> Croquet (and, because it is included with it, Squeak) that is mostly a
> MIT/BSD style license. Which means that it appears they have nailed
> the problem of re-licensing Squeak.

Perhaps. That would be for the courts to decide - some arguments can be 
made for that all it really needs is what we've done with Croquet to 
relicense Squeak but in the end, only the courts will decide. But I 
would be careful about the "Squeak is included" bit - by the same 
measures (having a pre-loaded image) one could claim that "Squeak is 
included with Seaside" that "Squeak is included with Tweak" etc. The 
license of proprietary linux kernel drivers does not change even if they 
are "included" in Linux distributions (and even if you don't 
specifically accept their license before downloading the distro).

> And even if they haven't, if someone complains, I can simply point to VRI :-)

I would agree as an individual but as an organization (company or other) 
I wouldn't take things so lightly. If there is a problem it is *you* who 
is in trouble to begin with. If you read Squeak-L carefully you'll find 
that VPRI does indeed adhere to all of the terms included so your 
finger-pointing might be totally off. But again, it would be for the 
courts to decide if it came to that.

> Therefore, the easiest way to 're-license' Squeak is to:
> a) download the OpenCroquet Jasmine release;
> b) strip all the 'excess code' (compared to, say, a Squeak basic image)
> c) release as Squeak under any license we like (plain MIT would be fine).
> This is a bit of a technical effort, but at least we know how to deal
> with that, and saves us the hassle of having to talk to Apple, Disney,
> ... lawyers.

Probably not. And I urge you guys to think about the consequences very, 
very seriously before you consider anything like the above. You could be 
making matters worse than they are.

Cheers,
   - Andreas