[CentOS] java license [was Re: A minor beef]

Matthew Miller mattdm at mattdm.org
Mon Nov 28 14:44:44 UTC 2005


On Mon, Nov 28, 2005 at 12:38:44AM -0500, Bryan J. Smith wrote:
> > The Java licence lets you distribute it under certain conditions 
> > (http://www.java.com/en/download/license.jsp) and
> Which _no_ distro meets AFAICT.  No offense, I'm tired of going over and

And which most distros _can't_ meet, since that includes restrictions like

  - you must distribute it for the sole purpose of running _your_ programs
    (that is, distributing it to allow other programs to be run violates
    the license). And these program must "add significant and primary
    functionality to the Software [Java]". That is, clearly the license
    forbids distributing the JRE for its own sake, and they've even added
    language to make clear that just slapping in a few applications that
    require Java isn't good enough. 
  - you can't include gcc in your distro, since that includes gcj, which
    could be consiered "additional software intended to replace any
    component(s) of [Sun's Java]"

Plus,

  - you have to accept the responsibility to defend and indemnify Sun
    against any claim anyone has

which is an impossible burden for any non-gigantic company.


-- 
Matthew Miller           mattdm at mattdm.org          <http://mattdm.org/>
Boston University Linux      ------>              <http://linux.bu.edu/>



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