PART I.
REBOL is the "language of the free" yet IT is not free.
The following are 3 incompatible statements made by
Carl Company.
--
On the posting "Website Direction", Carl says:
Yes. This is our "first wave" business direction. It's a
fertile ground that we think has great potential. It gives
us the niche we need to build our business, but gives us a
lot of dynamic range to expand into other markets as we
succeed.
Besides, it gives all us REBOL folks, both you and me, the
ability to now live off of our favorite hobby. 8)
--
http://rebol.com/technology.html says:
REBOL/Core ... is provided free and with unrestricted
distribution to encourage the adoption and use of REBOL
applications as well as promote knowledge of the REBOL
Language and application engine.
--
REBOL TECHNOLOGIES SOFTWARE END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT says:
REBOL Technologies (REBOL) hereby grants you a
non-exclusive and non-transferable license to use the
Software and Documentation for the purpose of designing,
developing, writing, testing and running computer software
applications.
--
What does all this mean?
How do "all us REBOL folks ... now live off of our favorite
hobby" when Core's license is "non-transferable" and why is
the license so when Core is supposedly "provided ... with
unrestricted distribution"?
PART II.
I said, on 04/04/00, as "Core Distribution Question":
If I write a client-side application using REBOL/Core,
may I distribute it without requiring users to obtain
their own copy through rebol.com?
The Core agreement seems to say "no" in that part about
non-transferability. I'm hoping I got this wrong as it
would put a damper on the distribution of my application.
"REBOL Technologies (REBOL) hereby grants you a non-
exclusive and non-transferable license to use the Software
and Documentation for the purpose of designing, developing,
writing, testing and running computer software applications.
If you do not agree with the terms herein, then do not use
the software."
Take Java for example. The runtime can be separated from
the development environment so they have separate license
agreements but that is not the case with REBOL since it is
both the environment and the runtime. If the answer to my
question really is "no" then I am disappointed both for the
viability of my application and for that of REBOL in
general as it will be difficult for it to overtake Java's
level of market penetration without changing the agreement.
--
The response from [EMAIL PROTECTED] was:
Perfect timing. We're closely reviewing our user license
right now and are re-considering the transferability of
REBOL for non-commercial uses.
--
Before I got the response from Dan, I sent the same message
to [EMAIL PROTECTED], with the following added:
I posted the above to the Core list but didn't get a
response. Here'e some more about it:
I just basically want to put up "myapplication.r" along
with "rebol.exe" (Core) on a website and allow people to
download them. I'm willing to keep track of unique
downloads (possibly in the form of the email-attachment
method used by View) so that I can report the number of
users to REBOL Technologies for the purpose of you
knowing how much Core is out there.
Please let me know if I can do this and if not, then why.
--
The response I got was:
According to the current license agreement, you are not
allowed to redistribute the REBOL interpreter without
a prior agreement with our Business Development department.
There are a number of such agreements which have been
issued. To request such an agreement, please contact
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
The Business Development department is considering the
possibility of relaxing the license agreement, but there
has been no determination to do so as of this date.
--
Is "closely reviewing" still going on a month a half later
or has the old license not been updated on the site?
I want to write an application which I can distribute, along
with the "runtime", so that users aren't put off by going
through the process of getting it from REBOL's site as that
is very developer-oriented.
Even if I ask users to go to that site and get it for
themselves before they can run my application, this type
of distribution will give REBOL a wrong indication of the
number of "developers" as the download count will be vastly
inflated. The questions under "2" on the download page
don't help REBOL much because all my users would answer
"personal/other/no/blank".
Also, even if the license has changed, "non-commercial uses"
does little to help me. I want to profit from my work and
now, from Carl's post (above), we know that Carl wants that
as well: "both you and me". So, how am I supposed to do
that when my situation is such that I'm neither getting paid
by someone to write REBOL code nor am I profiting, in an
ancillary manner, through web-based sales
