FWD » Core Development

Please cleanup/improve the software_dependencies.odt chapter in the p2j_docs/runtime_installation_configuration_and_administration_guide/ project. The chapter has some structure defined but it needs lots of work. See my GES: notes in this chapter for details. You should also change or add anything else that you find would be useful.

In the "Obtaining the 3rd Party Code" section, it states "No license needed" for the Java Servlet API and for the Java Transaction API. I understand these APIs are part of J2EE, but there is a license. Please add a URL for the appropriate J2EE license.

Also, please remove the projects that are no longer in use (e.g., Jakarta Commons Digester). There is no need to document them anymore.

Ovidiu's findings for the JTA license suggested a potential problem redistributing this technology; however, that license seems to be for the bundle of class files, not the jta.jar.

After further research, he found that the license used for JEE (Oracle Binary Code License Agreement for Java EE Technologies -- follow link from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javaee/downloads/java-archive-downloads-eesdk-419427.html#java_ee_sdk-5_08-jdk-6u17-nojdk-oth-ml-JPR) covers both JTA and the Servlet API.

This license allows for redistribution under other licenses (see Supplemental License Term B), so long as (among other conditions), Oracle's rights under its Binary Code License are adequately protected under the license used for redistribution.

We got JTA from the Hibernate 3 distribution (under LGPL) and the Servlet API from the Jetty distribution (under Apache), both of which meet this criterion. Therefore, these licenses (i.e., LGPL and Apache, respectively) are what we rely upon for these libraries. Both allow our customers to redistribute these libraries for commercial purposes.

Ovidiu will update this chapter accordingly. From Greg:

Ovidiu: we need to find a way to explain Eric's findings in the chapter. My idea is that anyone that looks at this must understand that these two dependencies came embedded with other projects and they need to understand the logic behind how they are licensed. I would like this documented well enough that we don;t have to ever figure this out again. <g> That means that the full logic must be on display and there may need to be more links and discussion in there than just a simple URL.

Ovidiu's response:

Ok, then I will add a column in the table named "Observations" or something like this that, and put it there.

Please note that the license type listed for ncurses is GPL, which is incorrect. This library has a BSD-style license:

-- Copyright (c) 1998-2004,2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.               --
--                                                                           --
-- Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a   --
-- copy of this software and associated documentation files (the             --
-- "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including       --
-- without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,       --
-- distribute, distribute with modifications, sublicense, and/or sell copies --
-- of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished  --
-- to do so, subject to the following conditions:                            --
--                                                                           --
-- The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included   --
-- in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.                    --
--                                                                           --
-- THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS   --
-- OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF                --
-- MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN --
-- NO EVENT SHALL THE ABOVE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM,       --
-- DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR     --
-- OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE --
-- USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.                                    --
--                                                                           --
-- Except as contained in this notice, the name(s) of the above copyright    --
-- holders shall not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the      --
-- sale, use or other dealings in this Software without prior written        --
-- authorization.

This really puzzles me.
ncurses is developed under GNU/Linux ([[http://www.gnu.org/software/ncurses/ncurses.html]])
and the copyright owner is Copyright (c) 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc. ([[http://www.fsf.org/licensing/]])
which is also the author of GPL ([[http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html]]),
but the ncurses is released under BSD style license ?

Yes, this is one of the few exceptions to FSF copyrighted software. This documentation from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ncurses#License) helps explain:

Ncurses is a part of the GNU Project. It is one of the few GNU files not distributed under the GNU GPL or LGPL; it is distributed under a permissive free software licence, similar to the MIT License.[7] This is due to the agreement made with the Free Software Foundation at the time the developers assigned their copyright.

When the agreement was made to pass on the rights to the FSF, there was a clause that stated

    The Foundation promises that all distribution of the Package, or of any work "based on the Package", that takes place under the control of the Foundation or its agents or assignees, shall be on terms that explicitly and perpetually permit anyone possessing a copy of the work to which the terms apply, and possessing accurate notice of these terms, to redistribute copies of the work to anyone on the same terms.[7]

According to the maintainer Thomas E. Dickey, this precludes relicensing to the GPL in any version, since it would place restrictions on the programs that will be able to link to the libraries.[7]