Re: Licensing, etc.

Your policy seems clear to me.

I was thinking of a conversation I had with someone at a recent SVFIG
meeting. The person seemed to think that evaluating a string from a text
file (similar to the recent licensing thread) was forbidden. I told this
person that it was clear to me that it was ok.

Perhaps I have made a mistake in thinking that two discussions on this
subject indicates a widespread misunderstanding.

Nevermind.

-----Original Message-----
From: Elizabeth D. Rather [mailto:erather_at_forth.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2001 10:16 AM
To: sftalk_at_forth.com
Subject: [sftalk] Re: Licensing, etc.

The specific language governing our policies is in two places: SwiftForth
Reference Manual Section 1.5 (a hopefully clear English description)
and the legal License Agreement which should be found in your Docs
directory.

I'm happy to try to clarify anything for you, but for maximum benefit to
all our users, current and future, I'd like to do so in the context of
finding and fixing any language in these places that is unclear or
problematic.

The short summary of our intent is: our product is a Forth development
system. We wish to limit distribution of our products as development
systems in ways we don't control or see revenue from. Insofar as a
program you write isn't a Forth development system, we do not wish
to inhibit distribution of programs built with paid, licensed SwiftForths.

So, can you offer any specific suggestions or questions that can help
make this more clear in the documents I cited?

Thanks,
Elizabeth

At 08:14 AM 9/6/01 -0700, you wrote:

>I don't know about anyone else, but I would appreciate a brief epistle from
>Forth, Inc. describing their licensing policy, perhaps with simple
>descriptions of "ok" and "forbidden" usage. I know this is covered in the
>manuals, but I have talked to several SF users who had opinions different
>from mine.
>
>As I understand it, anything goes if you are using your own copy of SF and
>"including" source code files: after all, you are just a single user using
>something you own. The same would be true of source code distributed for
>use by others with their own copy of SF.
>
>Also, pre-defining Forth words and then "evaluating" them via a text file
>loaded at run time (e.g., in a turnkeyed app) shouldn't be a problem, per
>recent SFTalk discussions. After all, the user is just executing
>pre-defined (and unchangeable) words, similar to what is commonly done in a
>turnkeyed app by picking an option from a pull-down menu.
>
>A typical problem area would be with a turnkeyed program that will be
>generally distributed. As I understand it, you cannot distribute or sell a
>turnkeyed program that duplicates the capabilities of the SwiftForth
>development environment. This would encompass things such as "including"
>text files that have defining words. Of course, this isn't real simple to
>do, because of the lack of a dictionary in turnkeyed apps :) I am sure
that
>Forth, Inc. would strongly object to any attempts to "work around" this
>limitation.
>
>I ran into this problem area when I wanted to turnkey (but not for general
>distribution) an existing application that assembled 8051 code from a text
>file. I knew that I should not attempt to compile and execute defining
>words from an "assembler" source code file (like the existing code). But,
>it was possible to pre-define words in the turnkeyed image that knew how to
>lay down byte sequences in a pre-allocated target image, which is all I
>really needed to do. As I understand it, a turnkeyed application of this
>type would not violate the letter or spirit of the Forth, Inc. policy.
>
>However, I would have someone at Forth, Inc. look at the program if I were
>planning to distribute it freely or sell it.
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
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================================================
Elizabeth D. Rather (US & Canada) 800-55-FORTH
FORTH Inc. +1 310-491-3356
5155 W. Rosecrans Ave. #1018 Fax: +1 310-978-9454
Hawthorne, CA 90250
http://www.forth.com

"Forth-based products and Services for real-time
applications since 1973."
================================================

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Received on Thu Sep 06 2001 - 10:55:23 PDT