LICENSING

Free, Its all free!

Yep, everything on the site is free. This does not mean that you can do whatever you want to it though, there is still a license which allows you to use everything (even commercially) as long as any distribution (even internally within your institution) must be available to the whole wide world, free, as well.

OSI - COMPLIENT , use of GPL and LGPL license throughout.

GPL License LGPL License OSI - certification

this is mainly to protect me from claims that my software was the cause of problems you have. The GPL also plainly describes that any work you do to the GPL protected code on this site, must stay free and be made readily available to anyone or any computer on which you release and distribute your own work based on STEEL.

Is USING STEEL binding with regards to data or code it generates?

No, Although the tools are bound by GPL, any output they produce is not governed by the GPL license.

The license is only concerned with the re-distribution of the STEEL code base itself...

Only slim-link, which outputs a linked-file, is binding your output resulting application to GPL because it always includes a version of slim within the linked application. Look below, if you need to free yourself of this limitation, get in touch and we can discuss a specific license term under which you could use select STEEL components under a different license than GPL/LGPL.

Each software has its own license terms, so check out any specific tool to see which of the two licenses it uses. In General, the stand-alone apps use GPL, while slim and its modules use LGPL.

Can I distribute my apps with STEEL external libraries?

Absolutely, That's the point of the LGPL license. The advantage of using the LGPL for slim and all the modules on this site, is that you can include them as-is and un-linked within your distribution, as long as they are left as-is and left external to your code, your application itself, is not bound by GPL or LGPL license.

Can I distribute my own apps based or linked with STEEL code?

Absolutely! that's the main purpose of the GPL, to ensure that gpl-licensed code remains available and freely obtainable throughout its lifetime.

The downside to the GPL license is that you cannot take the code (not even one single line, btw) paste it within your application, and then make your application ignore the gpl license. If you use any source code of a tool which is GPL licensed, then you MUST, in turn, make your software at least as open as gpl.

I'm open to other license terms, especially for promotional opportunities or if you plan on including steel tools in non-free applications.

Get in touch with me and we'll reach an agreement which benefits both parties.

last updated: 30-Jun-2004/23:32:16-4:00