I'm trying to grasp some J2EE licensing concepts. I'm trying to decide if
Sun is fleecing some companies over J2EE branding fees while leaving others
alone for arbitrary or capricious reasons. I just posted a long message
about it to the jbosslicense group at
http://www.egroups.com/group/jbosslicense. There are some very disturbing
issues that are not only philosophically interesting, but important to Java
developers, organizations and companies who are basing business goals and
decisions on server-side Java software. If any of the folks at Orion can
comment, that would be fascinating, since Orion is one of the few J2EE
servers I know of that's closed-source, but not (as far as I know) branded
J2EE. However, I believe the open source J2EE servers out there are as much
at risk of being sued or halted by Sun as Orion, based on my understanding
of J2EE licensing and branding thus far. If anyone can point to me to some
resources on this, please do.
I notices these relevant comments from the Orion FAQ:
"Q: What sets Orion apart from other application servers?
A: Many things make Orion a leader among application servers. A few of these
things are:
Superb performance. Orion is easily the fastest J2EE-based Application
Server
Orion is the only commercially available application server with full J2EE
support
Unique development features like auto-deploy and full hot-swap.
Very affordable pricing"
Now, since Orion has not (so far as I am aware) licensed J2EE from Sun,
there's no way they have the Sun compatibility test suite (CTS) for J2EE, so
they obviously haven't even tried to pass the tests. Since BEA, IONA and
iPlanet have passed the CTS, I hardly think Orion is "the only commercially
available application server with full J2EE support." And I would think
that sort of claim is precisely what would put Orion at the risk of being
dogged by Sun attorneys.
Here's another interesting quote:
"Q: Any plans to offer your source under a Linux-style license?
A: No, there are currently no such plans.
In fact, if we did, Sun might sue us since they see any implementation of
the J2EE specification as their intellectual property that we can not show
to anyone."
This makes no sense. The source code for the RI of J2EE can be downloaded
by anyone who agrees to the Sun Community Source License. jBoss implements
a large part of the J2EE specs, and that's LGPLed. While I agree with the
Orion FAQ that there are certainly issues of intellectual property with J2EE
software, I don't agree with that logic at all.
I'll say the same thing I said about jBoss on the other list (substituting
"Orion" for "jBoss" everywhere):
"If Orion is allowed to implement many of the foundational J2EE
specs (JNDI, JTA, EJB, etc.), without paying a commercial license fee
for the specs and Sun APIs like BEA, IBM, IONA and others have done,
doesn't that tear a huge hole in the integrity and legality of Sun's
J2EE branding and licensing? It makes it appear as though Sun is
unfairly targeting large businesses who use their APIs and specs,
while leaving open source/small businesses alone. That would be
capricious, and I think illegal of Sun.
This may not be an issue now, because Orion is just gaining ground in
the business world. But in 6-9 months, if Orion gains momentum, I
would expect the J2EE licensees to start complaining about loss of
market share to a product that's never commercially licensed the APIs,
never paid the contractual fees, and never passed the compatibility
tests. They would pressure Sun to enforce the J2EE and Sun Community
Source License rules on Orion as a commercial product. This could
also apply to JONAS, OpenEJB, Enhydra, jBoss etc."
I know this stirs up the pot, so to speak, and I know some people couldn't
care less. But for my career and my interests in server-side Java and
things like open source and open standards, I think these issues are very
important. I'm trying to get some feedback from like-minded folks or from
official representatives of commercial concerns on how these issues touch
them, whether they feel they've been resolved, how they understand/cope with
them, or even if their attitude is "we'll cross that bridge when Sun's
lawyers bring us to it."
Best regards,
Scott Stirling
West Newton, MA
