Terracotta Discussion Forums (LEGACY READ-ONLY ARCHIVE)

JVC8bal,

Our website team asked me to ask if you can post the URL of the page where you filled out the form? Your quoted error message references "terracotta.com" but that is not one of our domains. Thanks.

-TM

JVC8bal,

Thanks for the heads-up, and we're sorry you're encountering technical issues. Your feedback has been forwarded to the website admins and they are looking into it, and we hope to have it resolved soon.

-TM

Hi,

Thanks for your question. It sounds as though you've built an application that you'd like to redistribute to your clients, and the easiest way to remove the attribution requirement contained in the Terracotta Public License (which applies to certain Terracotta code) is to enter into a reseller agreement with Terracotta, which can be tailored to suit your needs. One of our team members will be in touch with you.

Hi Jim,

Thanks for your feedback. When we roll out the next version of the website, we're planning to add some additional content around licensing, and I will keep your comments in mind.

I know that the Free Software Foundation chart that you linked to was only an example, but it's important to note that the FSF chart only lists which open source licenses meet FSF's approval. You've touched upon a key point, though, which is the trend in the F/OSS arena for organizations to try and define what is and what isn't open source. As you've noted, Google Code has a different definition from FSF, and the Open Source Initiative has yet another definition, and so on.

At Terracotta, we chose simplicity with our licensing. Specifically, any open source Terracotta software can be combined with any other open source software product, regardless of which licenses are used, as long as you're using the software within your own company (or school, or organization, or for yourself). If you're redistributing, then the Terracotta Public License's attribution clause applies.

Hope that helps.

Hi David,

In general, the answer is yes -- if you go the DIY route, your company can do distributed caching with open source ehcache EX, and the nightly builds are free to download and use in accordance with the open source license.

The enterprise version includes, among other things, support from Terracotta experts, a performance warranty, indemnification assurance, and can be expanded to include dedicated deployment assistance.

Tim

Hi lcotonea,

It looks as though you're misinterpreting what "dual license" means. Sun makes the XWSS code available under either the CDDL, or the GPL, via its download page. The end user is permitted to select which license governs. The ehcache server is governed by the CDDL. Hope that clarifies it for you.

regards,
Tim McIntyre
Terracotta Inc.

Yep, Alex is right. Unless otherwise indicated, all Terracotta source code is licensed under the TPL. You can find a copy of the license file in the WEB-INF for Examinator. Hope that helps.

Hi Minoru,

A standard Terracotta FX purchase does not include access to source code, but if your company has unique technical requirements, our field engineering team can work with you to map out a custom agreement. You can email sales@terracottatech.com for additional information.

Hi tk2008,

Thanks for your interest in Terracotta. I work as Terracotta's in-house attorney and wrote the Terracotta Public License, and I wanted to address your concerns about the license. As Taylor notes up-thread, our license is designed to allow corporations to run Terracotta internally, without attribution. The only time attribution applies is if you redistribute or otherwise make available Terracotta code. If you aren't doing either of those things with Terracotta code, then the attribution requirement does not apply. If you'd like, I'd be happy to talk to your legal department about the license.

Here is the relevant excerpt from the licensing FAQ:

==================

Using Terracotta Within Your Enterprise to Benefit Others Who Are Outside Your Enterprise

Many developers use Terracotta within their enterprise, in a way that benefits users who are outside their enterprise. For example, Google can run Terracotta internally, to benefit users who visit its site. Similarly, an ASP can cluster its application service with Terracotta, to provide a better experience to its users. In these cases, you can always:

* run Terracotta in your enterprise, with no attribution
* modify and edit Terracotta code, and deploy it without attribution
* use Terracotta code taken from another product that uses Terracotta, with no attribution

Distributing Terracotta to Others, Outside Your Enterprise

If you're going to distribute Terracotta in either its original or modified form to someone else, outside your enterprise, then you can always:

* use Terracotta code in its original form in your software, as long as you include attribution and you license the Terracotta files under the TPL
* modify and edit Terracotta code and use it in your software, as long as the changes are licensed under the TPL
* license your own code under a license that you choose, including a proprietary license

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.

No, you wouldn't have to open source the app, according to the Terracotta Public License. You never have to open source your own code, or any third party code (such as the commercial client application in your question) that you integrate or run with Terracotta.

You only have to open source any changes that you make to any Terracotta files, and which you then "distribute" to others. (And I use the term "distribute" not in the computing sense, but meaning to sell or give away to others outside your organization.)

marbro wrote:

Hi,

I was going through the POJO Quick-Start and read about the need for the Boot JAR. From the language over there I get the impression the boot JAR contains instrumented system classes that override classes in the rt.jar. I haven't looked for the licensing terms of other JVMs but the binary code license of the Sun JVM prohibits this.

In http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/technotes/tools/solaris/java.html it is even explicitly mentioned at the non-standard -Xbootclasspath option. I can't imagine Terracotta is not usable with the Sun JVMs so I must be misunderstanding something here, can someone clarify.

Thanks

Hi Mark,

Great, nuanced question. I work as Terracotta's legal counsel. We analyzed Sun's license agreement (as we do for the relevant licenses for all other third-party code with which we operate) when creating our software. Because Terracotta augments Sun's redistributable Java files (specifically, the boot JAR) rather than replacing or superseding them, we can assure our users that we are in full compliance. This is equivalent to what some aspect-oriented programming frameworks do.

If you'd like to discuss this further, I'd be happy to talk to you off-line about it. Feel free to email me directly at tmcintyre AT terracottatech DOT com.

Hope that helps.

anodos wrote:

Doesn't Terracotta use Berkeley DB internally? If so, then does Open Terracotta have some special arrangement with Oracle for licensing? If I remember correctly, Berkeley DB's open source license is not as permissive as Terracotta's?

Hi Anodos,

Yes - we currently bundle Berkeley DB as part of Open Terracotta. For our open source version, the Berkeley DB files are indeed governed by the terms of the Sleepycat License, the full text of which is over at http://www.opensource.org/osi3.0/licenses/sleepycat.php

Hope that helps.

eelco wrote:

Can anyone explain what indemnification assurances means, why it is good to have that, and most importantly what are the catches of not having that?

For instance, if we were to use Terracotta for a deployment (no redistribution), and Terracotta would have a licensing issue, would we be liable for that?

Hi Eelco. Great questions. Terracotta customers who purchase a commercial license and support subscription (which is called the "Terracotta Enterprise License") receive an indemnification section in their agreement. Basically, indemnification means that if someone claims that the customer's use of Terracotta infringes their intellectual property rights, then Terracotta will defend the customer against the claim, and Terracotta will pay for any damages that are awarded. Indemnification is good to have, because it gives the customer added peace-of-mind and protection. Virtually every software vendor includes an indemnification section in their commercial license (and if they don't, they ought to).

Terracotta's open source license (the "Terracotta Public License") does not include indemnification. Terracotta open source software is distributed "as is," without a warranty. Every open source license (GPL, BSD, Apache, MPL, etc.) is like this, and every open source project that I'm aware of is like this, and here's why. Since users have total freedom to modify the source code in any way they want, there is no practical way for the original creator (such as Terracotta) to know how the software is being changed by future "downstream" users, and so there is no way for the original creator to be certain that those changes don't infringe on somebody else's IP rights. So, the "catches of not having" indemnification when using any open source software is that if you modify that software, then you are responsible for making sure that your changes don't infringe someone else's IP rights.

To answer your last question, if you use Terracotta for a deployment, and someone brings a claim against you for IP infringement because you use Terracotta, if you are using the open source version, then you would be liable. If you are using the commercial version, then no, you would not be liable, because the indemnification section would cover you.

I should also explain that before Terracotta releases any of its software (both commercial and open source versions), we review it thoroughly to be sure that it doesn't infringe on anyone else's IP rights, so that our customers and our open source community members can deploy Terracotta without any worries.

I hope that helps!

Please note that the attribution notice *only* applies if you redistribute Terracotta code (or any modifications to Terracotta code). If you just use Terracotta internally, but don't actually distribute the code, then there's no attribution requirement.

If you plan to redistribute Terracotta and have questions about how to place a hyperlink into a Swing GUI, let us know and we can help you.