2008/12/14 Jayson Joseph Chacko <[email protected]>: > > JavaFX runtime is not free. Check out the revised Sun binary license, > > http://www.java.com/en/download/license.jsp > > It says, > > "Unless enforcement is prohibited by applicable law, you may not > modify, decompile, or reverse engineer Software...." > > It goes on to exclude the JavaFX runtime specificially from the open > source material, > > " Sun grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, limited license > without fees to reproduce and distribute the Software (except for the > JavaFX Runtime)," > > It is clear that Sun wants to extract the benefit of projecting > something as open source free software and at the same time wants to > hold on to the runtime as proprietary software. They are just waiting > to see how it turns out. :-) > > As we have already seen in the FSFS conference Sun is able to market > JavaFX (think about the publicity they got) as a free software even > though it is proprietary. That is what I call stealth marketing and I > don't know how that is in anyway different from Novell's idea :-)
Sun has a commitment to release their software as Free Software and they have demonstrated in the past by releasing OpenSolaris and Java. Though the FAQ is pretty unclear, I got another link where they stated it will be released as Free Software http://java.sun.com/javafx/faqs.jsp#2 And, on the important question of what in JavaFX is going to be open sourced: Q: Is the JavaFX Runtime the same thing as the JavaFX Script which is to be "open sourced" as per the FAQ? Nandini R: Yes, it is and the runtime will be open sourced. Alright, good to read the clarification that the runtime will be open sourced. http://www.oreillynet.com/onjava/blog/2007/05/javafx_new_wysiwyg_editor_rama.html Novell's idea is different. The main issue with Novell's deal with Microsoft is patents. They have provided legitimacy to Microsoft patent claims on Free Software and they have divided the community into those who pay Microsoft and those who do not making Microsoft's job of suing Free Software users without including their own customers (one of the biggest reason why they don't do it at the moment). It also against the spirit of the GPL. They found a loop hole in the wordings and exploited it. GPL v2 talked about patent license and what Novell did was patent license in effect - they used the word "covenant not to sue" to evade GPL. But the community fixed the loop hole in GPLv3 by saying any deal that result in "not getting sued for patents" irrespective of the words and tricks will be a violation of GPL. Sun is the largest (lines of code) contributor to Free Software and they have difficulty in dealing with code that they have licensed from third parties when they release it a s Free Software. When they announced java will be Free Software, there were some code which Sun does not own in java which needed time to rewrite. And they have kept their commitment by rewriting all the parts which were not free. So from the past experiences with Sun we have a reason to believe their word. But as Arun mentioned if more people volunteered for the technology track we could have avoided this. I hope you will help with any upcoming conferences to ensure these kind of things won't happen. - Cheers Praveen -- പ്രവീണ് അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില് <GPLv2> I know my rights; I want my phone call! <DRM> What use is a phone call, if you are unable to speak? (as seen on /.) Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ "Freedom is the only law". "Freedom Unplugged" http://www.ilug-tvm.org You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ilug-tvm" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For details visit the website: www.ilug-tvm.org or the google group page: http://groups.google.com/group/ilug-tvm?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
