Re: Ruby license (was Epic4/Ruby)

Jonas Bow <[e-mail]> writes:

> > Second, the Ruby interpreter comes unter terms that (bit vague but)
> > harmless to commercial software, no matter how your lawyer says.
> 
> No matter what you and I think, what the lawyers says will control the
> future of Ruby in some important areas.
> 
> Of course I do respect your decisions about your Ruby implementaion. The
> only thing I can hope for is a non crippled Ruby implementaion in the
> future with a Apache license or a BSD license. 

Jonas:

You've got me worried, because I use Ruby all the time in commercial
projects. So, I hope you don't mind, but I'd like to pick the brains
of the lawyers you've been discussing this with. Attached below is the
Ruby license. Could you possibly annotate it, showing the parts that
your lawyers felt would stop Ruby being used? If there are problems
with stuff in the file LEGAL, perhaps you could include those
too. This would be a real service to the community, who might
currently be feeling somewhat concerned about some of your previous
statements.


Thanks


Dave



Ruby is copyrighted free software by Yukihiro Matsumoto <[e-mail]>.
You can redistribute it and/or modify it under either the terms of the GPL
(see the file GPL), or the conditions below:

  1. You may make and give away verbatim copies of the source form of the
     software without restriction, provided that you duplicate all of the
     original copyright notices and associated disclaimers.

  2. You may modify your copy of the software in any way, provided that
     you do at least ONE of the following:

       a) place your modifications in the Public Domain or otherwise
          make them Freely Available, such as by posting said
	  modifications to Usenet or an equivalent medium, or by allowing
	  the author to include your modifications in the software.

       b) use the modified software only within your corporation or
          organization.

       c) rename any non-standard executables so the names do not conflict
	  with standard executables, which must also be provided.

       d) make other distribution arrangements with the author.

  3. You may distribute the software in object code or executable
     form, provided that you do at least ONE of the following:

       a) distribute the executables and library files of the software,
	  together with instructions (in the manual page or equivalent)
	  on where to get the original distribution.

       b) accompany the distribution with the machine-readable source of
	  the software.

       c) give non-standard executables non-standard names, with
          instructions on where to get the original software distribution.

       d) make other distribution arrangements with the author.

  4. You may modify and include the part of the software into any other
     software (possibly commercial).  But some files in the distribution
     are not written by the author, so that they are not under these terms.

     For the list of those files and their copying conditions, see the
     file LEGAL.

  5. The scripts and library files supplied as input to or produced as 
     output from the software do not automatically fall under the
     copyright of the software, but belong to whomever generated them, 
     and may be sold commercially, and may be aggregated with this
     software.

  6. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR
     IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED
     WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
     PURPOSE.