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Does anyone know the license under which rubygems (http://production.cf.rubygems.org/rubygems/rubygems-2.0.4.tgz) itself can be redistributed? The rubygem.org seems to have no mention of this...
Thanks Rags
The RubyGems license:
RubyGems is copyrighted free software by Chad Fowler, Rich Kilmer, Jim
Weirich and others. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under
either the terms of the MIT license (see the file MIT.txt), or the
conditions below:
1. You may make and give away verbatim copies of the source form of the
software without restriction, provided that you duplicate all of the
original copyright notices and associated disclaimers.
2. You may modify your copy of the software in any way, provided that
you do at least ONE of the following:
a. place your modifications in the Public Domain or otherwise
make them Freely Available, such as by posting said
modifications to Usenet or an equivalent medium, or by allowing
the author to include your modifications in the software.
b. use the modified software only within your corporation or
organization.
c. give non-standard executables non-standard names, with
instructions on where to get the original software distribution.
d. make other distribution arrangements with the author.
3. You may distribute the software in object code or executable
form, provided that you do at least ONE of the following:
a. distribute the executables and library files of the software,
together with instructions (in the manual page or equivalent)
on where to get the original distribution.
b. accompany the distribution with the machine-readable source of
the software.
c. give non-standard executables non-standard names, with
instructions on where to get the original software distribution.
d. make other distribution arrangements with the author.
4. You may modify and include the part of the software into any other
software (possibly commercial).
5. The scripts and library files supplied as input to or produced as
output from the software do not automatically fall under the
copyright of the software, but belong to whomever generated them,
and may be sold commercially, and may be aggregated with this
software.
6. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE.
(It's in the LICENSE.txt file in the tarball you linked.)
It is distributed under the MIT license according to the git repo: https://github.com/rubygems/rubygems/blob/master/LICENSE.txt
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I easily forget to regularly make local git commits, and so i've developed the bad habit of having a few very large commits. I'd really like to make lots of small commits. Largely so the messages are more explicit.
I know myself well enough to know that this isn't just going to magically happen by me remembering. I'm more likely to be successful if I implement a system that pushes me to do this.
Here's what I'd like, either an Xcode plugin, an Applescript or an xCode behavior trigger that systematically initiates the commit command (cmd-option c) within Xcode (or i suppose i'd explore alternatives, but it'd be nice to stay within xCode). It can do this either based on the number of files changed, or amount of time elapsed, or possibly on a "build and run" or any other reasonable behavior. At any rate, i'd like for it to be somewhat configurable and where it could be enabled and disabled easily.
So is there something this already out there? If not, do you have any guidance on how I might get started with a potential solution.
Interesting Question
You might want to extrapolate from the following code found on this website. One might generate a unique but standardized text message combined with a folder name/date combination as the automated commit message or take the script and make it runnable to accept a parameter as input with the message being the parameter. I suppose though that might be as much work as typing git commit in the terminal. Instead you may want to use this script in combination with Folder Actions to monitor activity on a folder with the script acting as a service.
(* Copyright (C) 2012 Collin Donnell
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. *)
tell application "Finder"
set current_path to (POSIX path of (target of front window as alias))
set commit_message to text returned of (display dialog "Commit message: " buttons {"Cancel", "Commit"} with title "Commit All" cancel button "Cancel" default button "Commit" default answer "")
try
do shell script ("cd \"" & current_path & "\"; git commit -am" & quoted form of commit_message)
on error the_error
display dialog the_error buttons {"OK"} with icon caution with title "Error"
end try
end tell
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I found a really cool piece of software under the AGPL license. I haven't heard of this before, so excuse the ignorance... But is it legal for me to simply bundle and use this product directly within my app (no modification) and resell for commercial use? Speaking of which, is there a simple table available that shows the implication of each open source license and whether or not it can be used by closed source, for-profit, $$$ type software?
It is unclear in your question how your program relates to this AGPL software. There are at least two possibilities:
If your software keeps the AGPL code as a clearly separated component that your code uses as an external program (e.g. in Java/GWT, Runtime.getRuntime().exec(params)), then your program does not need to be licenced as AGPL and you do not have to distribute the sources of your code, but you must make the sources of the AGPL software as easily available as your application (section 6d of AGPL v3).
If your software merges somehow with the AGPL software, even just creating a wrapper around it, in a way that the separation is not clear or they cannot "reasonably [be] considered independent and separate works in themselves", then your program can be considered a derivative work and therefore must be licenced as AGPL, and you must distribute the source code of both your program and of the original AGPL software.
I would like to stress that there is nothing wrong with charging for access / use of AGPL software. You only need to provide the source, nothing prevents you from charging a fee or earning money from advertising (like those websearch companies that run on modified linux kernels).
As per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affero_General_Public_License
Both versions of the AGPL were designed to close a perceived application service provider "loophole" (the "ASP loophole") in the ordinary GPL, whereby using but not distributing the software, the copyleft provisions are not triggered. Each version differs from the version of the GNU GPL on which it is based in having an additional provision addressing use of software over a computer network. The additional provision requires that the complete source code be made available to any network user of the AGPL-licensed work, typically a Web application.
In short, no. According to Wikipedia the AGPL license is just like the GPL license with added clauses for use over a network.
The long answer is yes, but you'd also have to publish your source. Some applications use this structure, for example the official XChat windows builds.
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We plan to sell a Windows portable application. By 'portable' I mean that it can be run from any Windows computer without installing it. For example from an USB stick etc. However the application while (theoretically) it can work anywhere, is targeted to LAN environments.
What solutions do you see that while keeping this advantage (in a more or a lesser degree) to still make money from it?
PS: The application is/will be written in Delphi.
If you are offering your product for sale and not for free, then you will most likely make money from it. If what you are asking is how to maximize the income and prevent piracy, then that is a more specific question.
The key to making money with software is to make the purchase route less painful then the piracy route. Usually the biggest hurdle to purchasing software is the price tag (but not always, some people just will never buy software and always pirate, but you can't do anything about that). And the biggest hurdle to piracy is some sort of DRM scheme, which is actually the second largest hurdle to purchasing software. Often times DRM only annoys the legitimate purchases, while the pirated version has all the DRM removed with less effort then you spend to put it in. Thanks to the wonder of electronic duplication, once the DRM is removed, then everyone can have a DRM free copy.
So you want a solution that only annoys illegitimate usage, but not legitimate purchases. This is much harder to do then expected.
Depending on the price tag for your software you might consider deploying it on a keyed USB drive (i.e. Dongle or USB stick with some special key). Then it is portable, but only on the hardware you provide. The user never has to worry about a secondary authentication scheme, and the DRM only becomes an issue when the hardware (which is harder to duplicate) is changed.
You say that it is only for a LAN environment, which doesn't necessarily mean that the computers will have internet access (and if they do, they probably have a proxy requirement) which means "phoning home" will be problematic. If you want the product to only be used on a specific LAN then you might require a license server to be installed on the LAN. Then the software could always check with the license server to make sure it is authorized. That won't work if you want it to run on multiple LAN's though.
Conversely if your price is low enough then most companies and people would rather buy the correct licenses and not risk the piracy. In actuality, depending on your clientele, most people will prefer legitimate licenses when they can, and DRM can actually discourage them from buying licenses.
Some alternatives:
Use a dongle, where the user of the software must plug in the dongle before your application can work.
At startup read a configuration file and if this is invalid or missing, halt the application or reduce its functionality. The configuration file should contain information about the user or company that licensed your software, and also a checksum to prevent users from changing the file. With such a file, serious companies are less likely to distribute this configuration files to others. Of course, you should then create one such configuration file per user that licenses your software.
Optionally, include specific computer information (type, memory, bios date, system guid, ...) that prevents the application from being run on other computers.
Make sure you make money from the service you can deliver, not only from the software you are selling. This service can include: providing upgrades, taking suggestions for improvements, assisting with problems, helping with domain-specific knowledge, ...
You can use some sort of license file and a "phone home" option that makes sure the same license is not used at more than one place concurrently.
If you have a large ordfer, you could try to get a memory stick with a special serial number and/or value in it that you can read out in the software (eg the exe must reside on a special memory stick)
Please note that a lot of users get quite annoyed by these things (we've used the first option)
Also please note that if commercially interesting, your app will be hacked. Make sure the effort someone has to take outweighs the profit the could make
One approach that also helps some is by custom branding. Each copy you sell would have compiled into it the name of the company it was sold too, which can be displayed as part of the splash screen as well as the about screen (along with a button to view the license terms). Most often this branding is done by using an external file which contains the information encrypted that when placed in the same directory as the executable is used to unlock the application as well as possibly provide additional functionality.
Unfortunately with todays software firewalls, most of the simple solutions to disallow running multiple copies on a network are not practical while still maintaining true portability, or requiring internet access to a server that you fully control.
Yes, piracy is a problem, but if you continue to offer great support and there is an additional "visible" benefit to purchasing, you can help offset this in your favor.
If you need trial protection, you can count uses/days if you have any sort of database where the user will have invested time and data, and won't want to lose it. Just encrypt the counter and place in the database somwhere. The user can then only reset the trial by wiping out the database. Depending on the type of app, this may be effective, or not.
Another approach is to not have a portable trial at all, but offer it as an incentive for purchase. i.e. conduct the trial on the desktop, and when they purchase a license, they get a license key that allows it to run on portable devices.
I recommend the PortableApps.Com framework for launching your app. It's free. You need to make your "launcher" open-source, but not your app itself. You can still run on a bare drive, if you follow their pattern.
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I found an odd situation at work and I'm trying to figure out where to start with a solution.
We have a custom hardware/software device which contains multiple boards, each with their own function and flavor of software (CPLD, bootloader, application, etc). Additionally, the device interacts with a specific web app and a PC application.
Each one of these components has a revision history, tracked individually. Particular devices (which of course are all featureless black boxes) potentially have different versions of any and all components, hardware and software- we're still in the prototype and test stages.
What I'd like is some kind of unified version tracking, where I can trace software builds against bugs and feature requests, have a history/schematics for the boards, and- most importantly- what versions of components were tested against which other versions of components. In other words, I know that bootloader version 1 passed test in conjunction with board version A, but was not necessarily tested against version B of the same board, even though it was extant at the time.
Individual rev tracking is relatively easy; we have a handful of developers working different software components. It's tying them together and being able to say that "PRODUCT VERSION 1.0" consists of this bag of components, tested against each other and not much else. That way, when we update, say, the bootloader, I can have it regression tested against the current versions of all other components, label the whole "PRODUCT VERSION 1.1", and know what that snapshot is, even though someone comes out with version 1.4 of the application code the same day.
Ideally I'd like to track revision history separately across all components, along with users being able to log bugs against specific components or against the product as a whole, after which developers can re-assign the bugs to whichever subsystem is appropriate.
Something web-based would be ideal as developers aren't physically colocated.
We're currently using Bugzilla, which is nowhere near up to the task. I'm looking at Trac, but I'm not sure it's the right tool from the job. It seems like there are a lot of source control systems, a lot of revision history systems, and a few project management systems out there, but I haven't found anything that handles everything I need.
It may sound more complicated that it is, but it's pretty complicated when we're down in the trenches with it. There has to be a solution to this!
Any ideas?
Have you tried quickbase by intuit? It does a great job at consolidated version tracking and you can add functionality for separate revision history. Trac is good, but lacks the robustness of quickbase (IMHO).
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I have received a request of buying the source code of a website I have developed and I wondered if anybody have been in the same situation and if there is anything I should specially be aware of. Anybody got some advise on how I should handle this situation?
First - a caveat - I'm not a lawer. Not at all. But I care alot about intellectual property and not getting sued, so I try to learn about it a bit.
In no particular order:
Double check your employment rules - when you took the job currently paying you money, what is your arrangment? Did you have to sign any statements giving your company control over all the code you produced? Even if it was a personal, unpaid project - corporate ownership can get you if you signed a strict intellectual property agreement.
Used open source? - there are a few main open source licenses, read through and check them to see the terms for sale of a product with dependancies on open source.
What deliverables does buyer expect? - Built code? source code? Also - what can you do to protect your code (obfuscation).
Do they expect support? - be careful, in my experience with corporate customers, a helpful, free of charge "sure, just call me if you have a quick question" can quickly become time consuming. If you are willing to throw in a free couple hours, be very clear that you will give up to X hours of support for free. And be clear about what your billing rate is after. If you really don't want to support it, make the cost of your time very high.
What sort of support do they want? - answers & configuration help? Bug fixes?
What sort of installation instructions are expected?
What do they own when they buy this? - a single installation for a single server? a site-wide license to install it wherever they wish? or --- worst case -- do they own this lock, stock and barrel such that you may no longer develop it and continue to use it yourself?
Get these answers cleared up, in writing, with signatures.
It's a good idea to have someone external read it to check for ambiguity.
It's an even better idea to draw up the agreement and have a lawyer read it - your lawyer, not the buyer's lawyer.
Avoid any nod/wink/handshake deals. Personal trust is great, but people change if the situation becomes stressful. Or people come and go within companies - the buyer today may be a different person tomorrow.
The first thing you need to consider is:
What license are you providing the code under?
If you don't stipulate a license, they're pretty much free to do with it what they want. Is that what you want? It's hard to answer the question without knowing the specifics of the situation: why are you selling the source code?
If this is a customer and so it's they can do their own custom modifications that you were otherwise being paid to do, the price should reflect that "lost work". Also, you will want to limit their ability to redistribute or resell that source code.
If someone just likes your site and wants the code, be very wary because there's every chance they'll just take it and set up their own. This may or may not be an issue for you. But again consider the issues of resale, redistribution, usage rights and ownership.
Depending on what the code is for, you may also want to consider what it is used for, what it can be used for and how that will affect you professionally or otherwise. It's possibly you may want to restrict the code from being used for certain things (eg adult or poker sites) or you want to require attribution.
Also for all of these things, you need to consider what terms transfer in the event of redistribution (ie how "viral" your license is).
There are lots of open source licenses out there (GPL, Apache, MIT, BSD, MPL, LGPL, etc). I'd suggest you take one as a basis and modify it to suit your tastes. You're far less likely to get in trouble that way than you are with coming up with your own terms.