RMS asked me to post his comments regarding the JTPL:
Sun claims that the Sun Technology Public License for Jini is a free
software (they say "open source") license. A quick reading (of
version beta 1.0) showed me that it is not even close to being one. I
found many fundamental problems:
* It discriminates between commercial and noncommercial distribution.
This sort of discrimination is incompatible with free software.
* It requires payment of royalties for commercial distribution.
Requiring royalties is entirely incompatible with free software.
* It imposes limits on what sort of modified features people can add.
Rules about how to distribute modifications, and about how to label
modifications, are ok in free software *provided they do not stop you
>from adding whatever features you want*. Sun's restrictions do stop
you, and that is incompatible with free software.
* It does not allow you to put the source code on a public-access
web site or ftp site. As you can see, this is nothing remotely
like free software.
* The license is full of provisions that give Sun preferential treatment.
For example, you must provide your changes to Sun before you release
them to anyone else.
* The FAQ claims that any compatible replacement for JINI is covered
by Sun's license. It isn't clear to me what grounds they think they
have for such a claim, but regardless of the grounds, it is extremely
offensive. Perhaps it is another attempt to bring back
"look-and-feel" interface copyright. Or perhaps it has to do with the
following:
* The license claims that the source code, and even the specifications
of JINI, are confidential trade secrets!
This outrageous stance paradoxically means that the free software
community need not worry about JINI at all.
A non-free library can't be part of the free software community, and
therefore if it seems to be useful (in a narrow practical sense) for
writing free software, it is actually a pitfall. That is what
happened with Qt: many free software developers fell into the trap of
using Qt.
JINI is not a pitfall, or at least not a dangerous one, because Sun
says we are not allowed to step into it! Releasing a free software
package that works with JINI is effectively forbidden by Sun's
license.
This means that if we want to make the *capabilities* of JINI
available for use in free software, compatibility with JINI will not
be needed. No free software will depend on the secret details of
JINI's interface. A totally incompatible library will be perfectly
good for our purposes.
According to Sun, this version of the license is not final, and they
are soliciting comments about it. By all means send them comments; I
will send them part of this article. If they do make JINI
free software, that would be good. But that requires a number
of different changes, so don't hold your breath. The best thing
to do is to ignore JINI unless and until they make it free.
