does that mean that the code is *not* copyrighted by Sun? dave
-----Original Message----- From: Murray Altheim [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2003 6:48 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: XNode API in scratchpad Murray Altheim wrote: > A bit confused here. > > I note that the XNode API was committed to the scratchpad by Dave Viner > on 2002-12-27: > > http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=xindice-dev&m=104101365726281&w=2 > > but because of "licensing issues" [1] it seems to no longer be there. > I looked at the license on the code, which is the same license as has > been there all along (Apache 1.1) and am curious as to who and why > (or whatever) the code is no longer in the repository. I know of no > licensing or IPR issues -- the code was donated while I was still at > Sun, just as has been many other things to Apache -- this is indicated > at the bottom of the license statement. AFAIK, the XNode code > distributed in Sun's Web Services pack has this same Apache 1.1 license. [...] I located the message [2] and I must confess *I'm* the one who put that message at the bottom of the license in a cut-and-paste operation. Gianugo Rabellino wrote: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > * ==================================================================== > > * > > * This software consists of voluntary contributions made by many individuals > > * on behalf of the Apache Software Foundation and was originally based on > > * software copyright (c) 2001, Sun Microsystems, Inc., http://www.sun.com. > > Whoa... what is this Sun copyright? I'm afraid that we have to get some > paper done by Sun in order to accept this code into Apache. Has a > donation form already been submitted? Has Sun agreed to give this code away? > > (I'm sorry to be a PITA, but we have to be very careful when it comes > to licensing issues). > > Ciao, > > -- > Gianugo The code was never published by Sun except in the form you've seen, so it was never copyrighted by Sun (actually, since assertion of copyright requires publication), so that statement is incorrect. But unfortunately, as Gianugo states, there never was a donation form submitted by anyone in my office to Apache, so the code IPR is not clear. I'm not sure what needs to be done at this point. I could try to contact someone in my old office to see what can be done, but my guess is that it's a rather low priority since I'm not there to do the work. I'm going to download the latest Web Services pack and see if they're still using XNode. If they are, it's a pretty safe bet that absent the formality of a donation form nobody has thought about informing somebody that it needs to be done, and that they're continuing to distribute the XNode API as if it had been. If that's the case, it's probably pretty safe for it to be included in Xindice, since Sun itself is distributing XNode with the license as-is, and it'd be impossible to sue anyone over that kind of thing even if Sun has made such a mistake. I'm at home on a 56K dial-up, so I'll have to go into KMi to get a faster connection for that 48MB download. Gah! Talk about shooting myself in the foot. I always love lawyers and their effect on the world... Murray [1] http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=xindice-dev&m=104757928505845&w=2 [2] http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=xindice-dev&m=104101434426892&w=2 ........................................................................... Murray Altheim http://kmi.open.ac.uk/people/murray/ Knowledge Media Institute The Open University, Milton Keynes, Bucks, MK7 6AA, UK . "Shhh. Be vewy, vewy quiet. We're hunting wabbits." -- Elmer Fudd "I don't know how close we are, closer than we were yesterday, I guess. All I know is we're on the hunt." -- George W. Bush BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3110615.stm
