Sun Java Comm Suite - Need Clarification of Licensing
Now that Sun has stripped out the email services from JES 5 and thrown them into another product, must I now pay to USE Sun Java Communication Suite or is the "licensing" strictly for support?
I must be a blithering idiot because for the life of me I cannot find the issue documented CLEARLY anywhere....."when you are ready to deploy" is a very vague term. I wish the marketing masters would use something like "Ok, it was free, now you have to pay" or "Feel free to use it, but if you want patches, etc. you have to fork over some money"
I guess the simple question is, will I violate the license agreement if I download and use the Sun Java Communications Suite without paying for a license?
Thanks,
Phil
# 1
Hi,
> Now that Sun has stripped out the email services from
> JES 5 and thrown them into another product, must I
> now pay to USE Sun Java Communication Suite or is the
> "licensing" strictly for support?
Well I know you can't get support unless you pay for it :)
> I must be a blithering idiot because for the life of
> me I cannot find the issue documented CLEARLY
> anywhere....."when you are ready to deploy" is a very
> vague term.
There is an underlying assumption here that running with unsupported software in a deployed environment is a bad idea (TM). This is basically saying the software is available for evaluation purposes.. which doesn't necessarily preclude from being available for production purposes... but it doesn't expressly include it either :)
> I wish the marketing masters would use
> something like "Ok, it was free, now you have to pay"
> or "Feel free to use it, but if you want patches,
> etc. you have to fork over some money"
> I guess the simple question is, will I violate the
> license agreement if I download and use the Sun Java
> Communications Suite without paying for a license?
When you install the software, the software licence agreement outlines the terms of 'permitted use' (section 3).
From my reading of the licence agreement, if you do not have an entitlement to the license (which I would guess you don't) then the software is for evaluation use.. which is defined as:
3(a) Evaluation Use. You may evaluate Software internally for a period of 90 days from your first use.
For any more clarification you may want to ask a Sun sales rep.
Regards,
Shane.
# 2
I think this issue highlights my laziness. I did not want to install, or even download the software, if it were merely a trial version, or a time-limited locked version.
I have used "unsupported" software for years now with no trouble - i.e. Mozilla, Sendmail, Apache, etc. :) I work in an academic environment with limited funds and I've been successful so far with the previously mentioned products by getting support for support forums (imagine that! :)
I also think this illustrates Sun's narrow view as to who uses (or wants to use) their products. By narrow, I mean how narrowly they market the products. The write up for the Sun Java Communications Suite is written as if the only people who are interested in it are ISPs or Fortune 500 organizations.
Anyway, thanks for the reply!
Phil
# 3
One thing we learned many years ago, when we were still Netscape, is that if you make "time limited" software in some instances, that will bite you at some point.
Since then, all software has been non-limited itself. The license terms may read differently, but it's far easier for us to have one set of bits for everybody than make a separate "trial" package.
