Can an open SOURCE Product REFERENCE a LICENCED Product ?

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Can an open SOURCE Product REFERENCE a LICENCED Product ?

ThSITC
Hello there again,

   I do really NEED you help and advise for the following question:

Can an OPEN source product (like ReyC) *reference* a LICENSED Product
(like PP) ??

My Scanner and (programmable) Parser are part of PP (licensed product)

ReyC uses those Parsers.

Now, when I open source ReyC (for Rexx dialects), but rehold the
copy-rights for
the used parts of PP (Parsers, Transformer, etc):

Is this still a valid OPEN SOURCE ?

Thomas.


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Thomas Schneider (www.thsitc.com)
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Re: Can an open SOURCE Product REFERENCE a LICENCED Product ?

Fernando Cassia-2
Yes Thomas, it is possible.

I´ll give you a reverse example: a piece of copyrighted freeware that
calls a command line open source tool. Take for instance the dozens of
GUI apps that are only graphical shells for the FFMPEG video
encoder/converter.

Some of these are distributed as freeware or shareware, but cannot
function without an installed ffmpeg.exe

In fact, if the program detects that no ffmpeg.exe is present, the
user is presented with a dialog telling him/her to download and
install the open source program.

You could do the same.

Although I wonder what use there would be with an open source  ReyC
without the parser?. Isn´t the parser the main part of it?.

I still think the´s a better approach for this: retain the PL/I, Cobol
and other features as part of a closed-source product, and release as
open source only a trimmed down version, without support for those
languages.

Call it "ReyC community edition (open source)" with support for
Rexx/NetRexx, and then sell "ReyC Corporate Edition (full features)"
as copyrighted software, without source code.

Wouldn´t that be a sensible approach?. It´s what Oracle is doing with
MySQL (bundling the "corporate edition" with non-Free software).

Compare for yourself and decide:

http://www.mysql.com/products/community/
http://www.mysql.com/products/enterprise/

Of course, it´s your product, you´re free to do whatever you want.

FC

On Tue, Apr 12, 2011 at 9:47 PM, Thomas Schneider
<[hidden email]> wrote:

> Hello there again,
>
>  I do really NEED you help and advise for the following question:
>
> Can an OPEN source product (like ReyC) *reference* a LICENSED Product (like
> PP) ??
>
> My Scanner and (programmable) Parser are part of PP (licensed product)
>
> ReyC uses those Parsers.
>
> Now, when I open source ReyC (for Rexx dialects), but rehold the copy-rights
> for
> the used parts of PP (Parsers, Transformer, etc):
>
> Is this still a valid OPEN SOURCE ?
>
> Thomas.
>
>
> --
> Thomas Schneider (www.thsitc.com)
> _______________________________________________
> Ibm-netrexx mailing list
> [hidden email]
>
>



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By making it worse;"
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