On Wed, 2004-12-15 at 23:35 +0100, Arnaud Vandyck wrote: > Tue, 14 Dec 2004 08:09:33 -0800, > Eric Gaumer <gaumerel@ecs.fullerton.edu> wrote: > > > This is the License for IBM's Java SDK. It clearly states that you may > > redistribute this package. > > > > http://www-03.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/b7db13a535a154a8862567310052aebd/b992cf38ad4d536e87256b9100626277?OpenDocument&Seq=1 > > ,----[ /usr/local/IBMJava2-ppc-142/docs/jre/LICENSE_en.html ] > | You may not 1) use, copy, modify, or distribute the Program except as > | provided in this Agreement; 2) reverse assemble, reverse compile, or > | otherwise translate the Program except as specifically permitted by law > | without the possibility of contractual waiver; or 3) sublicense, rent, > | or lease the Program. > `---- > "except as provided in this Agreement" Meaning what? If I manage a few hundred servers that all use Java then I have to download Java on each machine individually? I can't provide that package to my network via apt? Maybe not globally to the world but how about locally to all nodes on the network. This is silly. I could see if it were something I paid for. Then it would make sense that each machine obtain a legal licensed copy but we are talking about a free program (monetarily speaking). > Also, note that the JDK/JRE from IBM is written with Sun. The Sun > license prohibit to redistribute the JDK/JRE without their agreement. I > don't know why IBM would change the license! The truth of the matter is that nobody here seems to have legal expertise in the matter and therefore can't accurately determine what exactly the license allows for. I've contacted IBM on the matter. If we can't redistribute this binary package, maybe we can persuade them to provide a .deb along side of the RPM packages on their site. It's worth a try and wouldn't require much effort on their part. We'll see just how committed IBM is to the Linux end user. I'll be removing the links to the Java packages until we get some sort of definitive answer. Thanks to everyone who offered input here and sorry if you didn't get a chance to grab this package while it was there. Maybe if you were to contact IBM as well, it would help persuade them to offer a debianized version of Java. -- Eric Gaumer <gaumerel@ecs.fullerton.edu>
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