Software: royalty free distribution rights

[hellokeith]

This challenge is intriguing. I'm not up to speed with things going on in the open source community, so I have some questions:

Does royalty free distribution rights also mean source code must be made available?

For example, I believe[/i] the Java Runtime is freely distributable, but I don't believe[/i] the source code for it is either available or distributable.

How about Flash/Shockwave players?

[Dallas]

I do not know the answer to your question but I had an idea for getting around it.

Maybe you could have the person that starts up your VM, trigger a script that will install the software through the publishers web page & license agreements. This way it is installed, but by the end user and you are not providing it. This may also decrease the size or your VM.

Would this fly according to the rules? With having to provide source code, I do not know.

[admin]

Hey,

You should really review the terms of the packages you include in your appliance. Depending on the licensing they use, some of them require that you make source code available if you modify it. So it would be worth your time to check out the licensing agreements carefully.

-Srinivas

[hellokeith]

Thanks Srinivas.

Reading up on the JRE license, it appears the JRE can be distributed, so long as it is unmodified and purpose is to make the app run - not just a repackaging of the JRE.

I actually am not concerned about my coding. I am just unclear if VMware is requiring the source code be made available on everything[/b] that is included in the VM, because I don't know if the source code for the JRE is even available. And I seriously doubt it'd be available for Flash/Shockwave players.

[admin]

Keith,

If you write your own app, that's your IP and we are not asking you to give up your IP. We want to be able to freely redistribute the appliance you create so we need to have redistribution rights - all this and more should be clearly spelt out in the challenge rules.

Please be sure to review the contest Ts&Cs. Thanks!

-Srinivas

[hellokeith]

\[quote]As to any non-open source component of a Participant's entry, Participant grants to VMware and all recipients to whom Participant's virtual appliance entry is distributed, a worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual, fully paid-up, royalty-free, right and license in all of Participant's intellectual property rights necessary to allow VMware and any third party to use, make, sell, host, cache, route, transmit, store, copy, distribute for commercial purposes, perform, display, and reformat the object code or content of such component.[/quote]

Well, the Java Runtime and Flash Player fail under that clause.. no way Sun or Macromedia would agree to all that.

This really is a Challenge[/i].

[Misterries]

Source code and object code are not the same thing. Object code is what you run on your workstation for the Java RE and the Flash plug-in.

This is from http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci539287,00.html:

\~~~

Source code and object code refer to the "before" and "after" versions of a computer program that is compiled (see compiler) before it is ready to run in a computer. The source code consists of the programming statements that are created by a programmer with a text editor or a visual programming tool and then saved in a file.

(snip)

The object code file contains a sequence of instructions that the processor can understand but that is difficult for a human to read or modify.

\~~~

The Challenge's rules are OK. Hope that helps.

~Peter

[hellokeith]

Hmmm, Peter, I'm not seeing how anything you just posted is relevant to this topic.

Here is the tricky part:

\[quote]As to any non-open source component[/b] of a Participant's entry, Participant grants[/b] to VMware and all recipients to whom Participant's virtual appliance entry is distributed, a worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual, fully paid-up, royalty-free, right and license in all of Participant's intellectual property rights[/b][/quote]

The statement does not explicity mention third party IP, only the Participant's IP. If I'm reading this correctly, then it would indeed be safe to include the JRE because I am not required to grant any rights to it; I'm only required to grant rights to my IP.

Srinivas?

[bac]

I Am Not A Lawyer, but I think you are reading that quote incorrectly. I think it's just talking about any of your[/i] IP in the appliance.

(snip)

Participant grants to VMware and

all recipients to whom Participant's virtual

appliance entry is distributed, a ...(snip)... license in all of Participant's[/b]

intellectual property rights[/b] necessary to allow

VMware and any third party to use, make, sell, host,

cache, route, transmit, store, copy, distribute for

commercial purposes, perform, display, and reformat

the object code or content of such

component.[/quote]

In other words: Anything that is your[/b] IP, you grant a full license to redistribute, etc. But that's only talking about stuff that you created.

Third party things like Java Runtime and Flash Player are not your IP. Those just have to be freely redistributable.

That's my reading of it anyway, but that's just my opinion.