Questions About CygWin and Licensing

Questions About CygWin and Licensing

[James A Boyer]

Hello,

I am currently on a project for Duke Energy to evaluate the following Commerce
One Products: BuySite and XML Commerce Connector. I am currently working with
PeopleSoft as they have OEM'd the two products from Commerce One in order to
make integration into PeopleSoft easier.

As part of the installation process we install your product Cygnus Tools (i.
eCygWin). According to the dir structure this is version b20. The vendor is not
able to tell me what exactly how they are using this product so I have a few
questions...

 - Most importantly, is the vendor complying with the license agreement for your
product? I am not very familiar with the GPL licensing methods, but it appears
that they may not be. I assume the key is how the product is used. I do know
that the source is not included by the vendor.

- Would it not be better to use the commerical version instead as it is
offically supported.

- Also if a third party provides the product, are they responsible to support
it. Even if it is the commerical version.

 - And last a technical question: As cygwin provides its own posix api, I assume
it will work on a machine that already has had the NT posix api removed.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I have a meeting with the vendors on
thursday and if I could hear something prior to then it would be a big help.

If you need to call me at work for more info, clarification. My number is
704-382-3079.

Thank You,

Jim Boyer



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Re: Questions About CygWin and Licensing

[DJ Delorie]

Note that these are all my opinion; I can get you in touch with the
Right People here if you need more authoritative answers.

> As part of the installation process we install your product Cygnus
> Tools (i.  eCygWin).

The package as we distribute it is called "Cygwin".  I don't know what
"eCygWin" is; it may be modified from our original distribution.

>  - Most importantly, is the vendor complying with the license
> agreement for your product? I am not very familiar with the GPL
> licensing methods, but it appears that they may not be. I assume the
> key is how the product is used. I do know that the source is not
> included by the vendor.

The easiest way to tell is to request the sources.  Just ask them:
"Did you ship us the sources for Cygwin?"  If they say no, then say
"Well, please ship them to us."  If they don't, they're not complying.
Also, check to see which cygwin components they are including (dll,
gcc, bash, whatever) and ask for those sources by name.  Note: they
are *not* allowed to say "it's on cygnus's web site".  They gave you
the binaries, *they* are responsible for getting you the sources for
*those* binaries.  Also, if they didn't ship the sources up front, you
must already have a written promise to ship them, good for three
years.  If you don't have that, that's also a boo-boo on their part.
If you think they're not in compliance, especially if they don't make
an effort to become compliant, please let us (privately) know so we
can investigate.

Of course, they might have purchased a commercial license as well,
although we wouldn't have sold them one for B20.

> - Would it not be better to use the commerical version instead as it
> is offically supported.

Yes (because it's newer), and you can purchase a commercial license
that allows non-GPL distribution.  But, the support may not be as
comprehensive as you expect, and net support for net releases is also
pretty good support.  Plus, any version change would require much
testing on their part to ensure that the new version doesn't introduce
problems in their applications.

> - Also if a third party provides the product, are they responsible
> to support it. Even if it is the commerical version.

Well, Cygnus (er, Red Hat) doesn't allow transfer of support (unless
they negotiated otherwise, but if they did they would have made a big
deal about it).  If they buy a support contract, we support *them*,
not their customers.  Even then, our support package for cygwin is for
running the development tools, not using it in a commercial product.

>  - And last a technical question: As cygwin provides its own posix
> api, I assume it will work on a machine that already has had the NT
> posix api removed.

Cygwin doesn't rely on the "Posix subsystem" you are talking about, so
it should work without it.

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