I totally agree. But the intrinsic value of a JAX-RPC standard API is a different issue from the licensing policies that Sun has imposed. Sun owns the JAX-RPC intellectual property. If you want to create or distribute a JAX-RPC implementation, you need to make sure that you have the proper license to do so.
Sun licenses the specification, the TCK, and the JAX-RPC Reference implementation. According to the specification license (see below), an independent implementation must pass the TCK. To pass the TCK, you must license the TCK from Sun. >From Sun's Web site: "The TCK and RI are licensable from Sun Microsystems. To license the RI and TCK, contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]" ASF licensed the TCK from Sun. Since ASF is a non-profit organization, they get different licensing terms than a commerical organization would. I don't know the terms of the non-profit TCK license, hence my questions. I don't know whether Apache has the right to pass that license on to other companies -- particularly for-profit companies that intend to make derivative products from the Axis implementation. It could be that if you are a commercial company, you may still need to license the JAX-RPC spec from Sun. I'm pretty sure that if you want to be able to claim JAX-RPC compliance, you would need to license JAX-RPC separately. When you download the spec, you must agree to the license below. Note particularly the following phrases - "without the right to sublicense" - "You may neither: (a) grant or otherwise pass through to Your licensees any licenses under Sun's applicable intellectual property rights; nor (b) authorize Your licensees to make any claims concerning their implementation's compliance with the Spec in question." JAX-RPC specification license: Sun hereby grants you a fully-paid, non-exclusive, non-transferable, worldwide, limited license (without the right to sublicense), under the Specification Lead's applicable intellectual property rights to view, download, use and reproduce the Specification only for the purpose of internal evaluation, which shall be understood to include developing applications intended to run on an implementation of the Specification provided that such applications do not themselves implement any portion(s) of the Specification. Sun also grants you a perpetual, non-exclusive, worldwide, fully paid-up, royalty free, limited license (without the right to sublicense) under any applicable copyrights or patent rights it may have in the Specification to create and/or distribute an Independent Implementation of the Specification that: (i) fully implements the Spec(s) including all its required interfaces and functionality; (ii) does not modify, subset, superset or otherwise extend the Licensor Name Space, or include any public or protected packages, classes, Java interfaces, fields or methods within the Licensor Name Space other than those required/authorized by the Specification or Specifications being implemented; and (iii) passes the TCK (including satisfying the requirements of the applicable TCK Users Guide) for such Specification. The foregoing license is expressly conditioned on your not acting outside its scope. No license is granted hereunder for any other purpose. You need not include limitations (i)-(iii) from the previous paragraph or any other particular "pass through" requirements in any license You grant concerning the use of your Independent Implementation or products derived from it. However, except with respect to implementations of the Specification (and products derived from them) by the licensee that satisfy limitations (i)-(iii) from the previous paragraph, You may neither: (a) grant or otherwise pass through to Your licensees any licenses under Sun's applicable intellectual property rights; nor (b) authorize Your licensees to make any claims concerning their implementation's compliance with the Spec in question. For the purposes of this Agreement: "Independent Implementation" shall mean an implementation of the Specification that neither derives from any of Sun's source code or binary code materials nor, except with an appropriate and separate license from Sun, includes any of Sun's source code or binary code materials; and "Licensor Name Space" shall mean the public class or interface declarations whose names begin with "java", "javax", "com.sun" or their equivalents in any subsequent naming convention adopted by Sun through the Java Community Process, or any recognized successors or replacements thereof. This Agreement will terminate immediately without notice from Sun if you fail to comply with any material provision of or act outside the scope of the licenses granted above. > -----Original Message----- > From: redpineseed [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Wednesday, December 04, 2002 9:32 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: Licensing Issues > > > Open Java Standard > > JAX-RPC has been developed as a standard specification under the > Java Community process as the JSR-101. So JAX-RPC specification > is a result of collaboration of multiple vendors under the JCP > expert group. Multiple vendors provide compatible implementations > of JAX-RPC standard. JAX-RPC standard enables portability of web > services across these multiple compatibility implementations. > This is a huge benefit for developers. > > > redpineseed >
