"Marcelo E. Magallon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
attached is a copy of "IBM PUBLIC LICENSE", extracted from the just
released Data Explorer 4.0 source. I don't know if this is the same as
Jike's license, but I catched my eye that Freshmeat lists this thing as
"OpenSource". I have read this, and all I can say right now is "this is
confusing!!!". I browsed IBM's site, but I couldn't find any reference that
claims this license is OpenSource...
Amazingly enough, it looks like this is Open Source compliant and
actually a pretty reasonable license. I only browsed it, however, and
didn't analyze it in detail or even read it word-for-word.
This clause in particular I find confusing. I'm not at all sure what
it means:
4. COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION
This Agreement does not prohibit any Contributor from including the
Program in a commercial product offering (including distribution in
object code form under a license agreement other than this Agreement),
provided that such Contributor ("Commercial Contributor") hereby
agrees to indemnify, defend and hold every other Contributor
("Indemnified Contributor") harmless from and against any losses,
damages, expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) and costs
(collectively "Losses") arising from claims, lawsuits and other legal
actions brought against the Indemnified Contributor to the extent
caused by the terms, conditions, acts or omissions of such Commercial
Contributor in connection with its distribution of the Program in a
commercial product offering, excluding any Losses arising from
intellectual property claims relating to the Program, provided that
any Indemnified Contributor: a) promptly notifies the Commercial
Contributor in writing of such claim, and b) allows the Commercial
Contributor to control, and cooperates with the Commercial Contributor
in, the defense and any related settlement negotiations. The
Indemnified Contributor shall have the right to participate at its own
expense.
And I find it interesting that IBM's lawyers don't know the difference
between `affect' and `effect' :-)
If any provision of this Agreement is invalid or unenforceable under
applicable law, it shall not effect the validity or enforceability of
^^^^^^
the remainder of the terms of this Agreement, and without further
action by the parties hereto such provision shall be reformed to the
minimum extent necessary to make such provision valid and enforceable.
--
"Debian for hackers, Red Hat for suits, Slackware for loons."
--CmdrTaco <URL:http://slashdot.org/articles/99/03/22/0928207.shtml>
