On Mon, 19 Jan 1998, Kragen wrote:
> I'm interested in helping to test EROS if it's something that will benefit
> ...
> 1) get source; 2) run it on production machines, like (e.g.)
> commercial web servers; 3) distribute modifications to the source on
> some terms not involving royalty payments; 4) legally reimplement
> EROS's methods of doing things in other software, either by
> royalty-free patent licenses or by lack of patents;
The current EROS license permits (1) and (3), could reasonably be read to prohibit or permit (2), and is silent on (4).
I'm mostly concerned that I could spend many late nights fixing bugs in EROS, only to find that, in the end, I'm prohibited from using the `production' version -- or even from using what I learned on some other project.
While I'm sure the EROS team wouldn't do such a thing themselves, some universities are claiming broad IP rights over their students' work these days.
Distributed GPL, Linux-style, provides good protection from these problems, as well as being congenial to commercial exploitation.
Kragen