Terracotta Discussion Forums (LEGACY READ-ONLY ARCHIVE)

Hi,

I got a question regarding middleware and the TPL. We are developing a platform which acts as middleware for our customers. The customers license the platform and deploy applications, much like an application server. As such, we do not sport any type of gui/text interfaces (other then jmx).

If we license Terracotta under the TPL, do we need to enforce our customers to include the attribution in their applications gui? (For comparison, if JBoss would be using terracotta, would every webapp deployed on a JBoss have to have attribution?)

As a sidenote, is a JMX client considered a gui?

Good questions. Thanks for posting.

Essentially, under the TPL, if you distribute or make available Terracotta code to third parties outside your organization (for example, as part of the platform that acts as middleware for your customers), then you need to include the Terracotta attribution information on each user interface. (Note that the TPL's attribution clause applies to "user interfaces," not just GUIs.) So, you'll need to determine whether your JMX interface constitutes a user interface. Since that issue requires some deeper analysis of your product, I'd recommend that you talk to your company's legal department.

As for your second question, if you license Terracotta under the TPL, and redistribute or make available Terracotta code to your customers, then your customers are not required to include any attribution notice anywhere, unless they redistribute your product (which would contain Terracotta). The TPL's attribution requirement is only triggered by distribution (either active distribution, or via passive distribution such as an ASP business model). Simply using Terracotta (or another product that contains Terracotta) internally at your organization to cluster your apps doesn't require any attribution at all.

I should add that if any of these requirements pose a problem for you, we do offer a commercial license that removes the attribution requirement entirely. Feel free to contact sales@terracottatech.com for more information, if you'd like.

Hope that helps.