Hi! On Thu, Apr 20, 2006 at 09:32:52AM -0400, Kurt Miller wrote: >On Thursday 20 April 2006 8:12 am, Edd Barrett wrote: >> One of my friends recently pointed out that FreeBSD are distributing >> Java 5 binaries and actually are licensed to do so from Sun >> Microsystems! I'm not sure how long thats been happening, but has >> anyone made any effort to try to bag a similar agreement for OpenBSD? >> If not I am willing to give it a try (with the consent of the OBSD >> developers). I think have an email address of a Java Core developer I >> met at JavaUK06.
>There are two primary reasons why we will not be able >to distribute java binaries: >1) Legal: The OpenBSD project is a collection of individuals. >There is no legal entity associated with the project like a >Foundation or non-profit org. That means there is no singal >point of contact for Sun to contract with and shield the >developers from liability. >2) Political: Even if #1 were solved, the binaries would >come with a binary only license that is incompatible with >the projects goals. IIRC the project goals mostly apply to base, while the "rules" for licencing in ports/packages are less strict. E.g. no new GPL stuff in base, but new GPL ports/packages are ok. Even more restrictive licences are accepted, e.g. in textproc/glimpse, where OpenBSD mirrors distfiles and distributes packages via ftp (but not on CDs because of the licence conditions). >On the other hand, I have applied as an individual to Sun's >scholarship program to get access to the test kit for 1.5 >(JCK). I was approved by the scholarship committee and now >waiting on Sun to get them. Do you know without having to check whether it'd be possible for an individual to obtain such a licence from Sun and distribute inofficial (wrt the OpenBSD project) Java packages then? Or would that bee too risky from a legal POV? >-Kurt Kind regards, Hannah.
