on 8/26/01 11:13 PM, "Michael Gerdau" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> However I have not yet read any argument against using LGPL'd software
> which does not force you to LGPL anything you create with it. It does
> force you to share your enhancements to the LGPL'd code but what is
> the difference to what you are doing here with all the software which
> falls under the Apache Licence ?
I believe that we can use LGPL. I believe the real issue is distribution,
which goes into the "why bother using it if we can't distribute it?" debate.
Needless to say, this opens up a whole another can of worms, which starts
with: why use the JDK if we can't distribute it or why use JavaMail if we
can't distribute it?
To answer, so far, I think that we have been politely ignoring Sun's
licenses and Sun has been politely turning their backs pretending not to
see. Why? The ASF has clout that Sun can't deny. If Sun told us that we
should stop distributing or using JavaMail, we would quickly engineer our
own solution for it and cut Sun entirely out of the picture. In fact, we
almost ended up doing this with Tomcat. The humorous part is that Tomcat 4
is what JServ 2.0 was going to be because they hired Craig.
This is certainly an interesting topic for another thread.
> One of the major issues that so far have ultimately prevented me from
> dedicating time to developing for the jakarta community is the fact that
> the Apache licence does _not_ prevent this work to eventually vanish
> into proprietary land.
This is a common misperception. Reality is that pretty much any software
which goes into the open can become proprietary. Including GPL. The GPL
primarily protects against distribution. If you don't distribute, you don't
have to give out the modifications. In the services business, one can
potentially argue that you are not distributing the software to your clients
because you are really an employee. I personally choose to not take that bet
because there is very little legal precedent for the *GPL licenses as well
as the fact that they are written very vaguely in several areas.
My point is that why take the chance when you can work without worry?
Needless to say, what I have realized over the years is that the software
developed under Java Apache and now Jakarta has absolutely zero IP
associated to it. It isn't that our work isn't valuable in some form, it is
that it is generally thought of as being the low level framework code that
you build IP on top of.
If I contribute software to the ASF, I'm putting my trust into the ASF that
things will not go badly within the organization. I'm a member of the ASF
and I have met everyone on the board of the ASF personally. I'm not worried
that this non-profit organization is going to become corrupt. Neither should
you be.
> So far I hope the amount of developers that work in this community do
> kind of guarantee my freedom and indeed I believe that won't change in
> the near future.
>
> But I can easily think of scenarios how this could. What if Java becomes
> as successful as Sun hopes it will. What if Sun becomes the new M$ ?
As far as I'm concerned, Sun is already no better than M$. They are equal
because from what I have seen, their attitude and perception is that their
main competitor is M$. How can you compete against M$ without becoming M$?
Look at JSP, what does it compete head on with? ASP.
<http://java.sun.com/products/jsp/jsp-asp.html>
-jon
