Re: [eclipse-dev] reusability of eclipse source

[Dave_Thomson@xxxxxxx]

Camille,
I posted the following to the newsgroup some time ago.  It specifically 
addresses
a question about using SWT code outside eclipse, but the answer applies to
any component of eclipse that is licensed under the Common Public License.

You will need to determine, by reading the license, if it is suitable for
your application.

See http://www.eclipse.org/legal/notice.html for details.

Here is my previous post.
---------------------------------------------------
There have been several discussions lately that asked this question.
I will now attempt to provide a more direct answer.

The answer is...

YES!  You can use SWT (or any CPL-licensed eclipse component) outside
eclipse.  We developed SWT because we needed a windowing system that
allowed us to build good tools with native look and feel and
performance.  If others find a use for SWT in other domains,
that is great.

We chose to license eclipse under the Common Public License (CPL)
because it facilitates the development of commercial and
non-commercial software products.
You can:
a) distribute unmodified versions of eclipse or parts of eclipse
    (such as SWT);
b) distribute "derivative works" where a derivative work is simply
    anything that has some or all of the eclipse code plus some of
    your code or your changes to eclipse code.

So, developing and distributing a product based on SWT, is definitely
permitted by the CPL, as long as you follow the conditions of the
CPL - in particular Section 3 which protects all the Contributors
to Eclipse.

The same can be said for the other components of Eclipse - at least
those which are licensed under the CPL.  A few third party components
are licensed under other licenses and you need to abide by their terms.
See http://www.eclipse.org/legal/notice.html for details.  You can
make derivative works of the compiler, or the search tools, the UI,
whatever.  We were serious when we said that we were putting this code
into Open Source.

I would also suggest reading through the CPL.  The CPL has been
approved by the Open Source Initiative http://www.opensource.org.
While it was written by a lawyer, it is short and relatively
straight forward, and we think it is quite liberal in the rights
that Contributors to the code base are providing to each other.
We are working on a FAQ on the CPL -  but the license must always
remain the definitive word.

Dave Thomson


----- Forwarded by Carolyn MacLeod/OTT/OTI on 04/09/2002 09:47 AM -----


camille.bloch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent by: eclipse-dev-admin@xxxxxxxxxxx
04/09/2002 02:34 AM
Please respond to eclipse-dev

 
        To:     eclipse-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx
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        Subject:        [eclipse-dev] reusability of eclipse source



In my company, we develop a java application and I want to know if we can
reuse Eclipse code (specially to implement docking windows)
Does a license exist for this purpose?

Thanks for your answers

Camille Bloch
Alstom France


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