On Tue, Jan 07, 2003 at 10:12:50AM -0500, Rose, Bobby wrote: > Everyone seems more interested in the SA name than the project. Is SA > still a completely open-source project now or does NAI have restrictions > or plan on introducing restrictions. For example: if the open-source > project comes up with or adds some new algorithm of detection does that > automatically become NAI property which ends up in their commercial > product (like bayes in 2.50)!? I'm certain that this contribution > relationship would only be one-way.
Standard disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play one on tv.
All (I believe) of the developers signed the "SPAMASSASSIN CONTRIBUTOR
CERTIFICATE", which says:
I have contributed code to the SpamAssassin project, and I did so, and
may continue to do so, under the following understanding:
a. When I submitted the code, I agreed that the code was to be
licensed for use under the same terms as Perl itself, that is terms of
either the Perl Artistic License (PAL), or version 1 or later of the
GNU General Public License (GPL), at the choice of the licensee.
b. The code which I submitted was specifically not licensed under
any license incompatible with this dual licensing. I understand that
code licensed under the GPL or PAL alone might be incompatible with
this dual licensing, and I confirm that the code I submitted was in
fact not restricted in this way.
c. Any third party is free to use released versions of the code
under the terms of either the GPL or the PAL, and they can choose
which license they wish to use.
So the open source version stays open source. NAI, and anyone else, can
take any piece of the code and use it in their product if they want to,
just like before. I'd assume they'd use PAL since they probably don't
like GPL code... However, since I believe their code isn't in Perl
(if it is they need to release the code in some form), they're probably
just using ideas from the open source version. If it's a direct use
of code, just compiled, they need to point people at the open source
version, include their source, or the nebulous "make other distribution
arrangements with the Copyright Holder" which is Justin and/or Craig,
and I guess that part is up to your interpretation and paranoia level.
Or at least that's my interpretation of the PAL.
--
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