Re: IBM's Jikes Java Compiler
Jim Pick writes:
> It's difficult reading through all the legal diarrhea in the license -
> but it seems pretty clear to me that you lose all the rights
> (redistribution, modification, patents) granted to you by the license if
> you take a snippet of code (less than 60%) out of Jikes and try to use
> it.
I read it as saying that you only lose patent rights. Since other free
licenses don't grant any patent rights at all, I don't see why this should
be a problem. Does the package actually use any IBM patents, or is this
just CYA boiler plate?
Look at it this way: If they were to add a patch clause they could delete
the 60% stuff because then you would never be able to distribute less than
100% anyway, and it would be DFSG free. I think they are just trying to
avoid an exploit where somebody includes one line from jikes in a 100,000
line program in order to avoid paying royalties.
The "termination upon legal action" clause is interesting.
--
John Hasler
john@dhh.gt.org (John Hasler)
Dancing Horse Hill
Elmwood, WI
Reply to: