Re: Commercial implementations of radius

Christopher Oliver (oliver@fritz.co.traverse.com)
Mon, 1 Jan 1996 02:12:20 -0500 (EST)

"Brian 'MegaZone' Bikowicz" <megazone> wrote:
> Once upon a time Chris Howard shaped the electrons to say...
<snip>
> >Can pieces of the Livingston and/or merit.edu code be used
> >in a commercial product?
>
> No, read the copyright in the code.

The exact language of the restrictions from radiusd.c v1.16 is:

Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that this
copyright and permission notice appear on all copies and supporting
documentation, the name of Livingston Enterprises, Inc. not be used
in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the
program without specific prior permission, and notice be given
in supporting documentation that copying and distribution is by
permission of Livingston Enterprises, Inc.

Whether "without fee" indicates that the derived work may not be sold
or that Livingston relinquishes right to exact a royalty is sufficiently
ambiguous that I think a clear understanding without legal council is
impossible. My reading as a competent speaker of the English language
was the latter, but IANAL.

If the intent is to prohibit commercial sale of software derived from
the package, then language similar to that of the RSAREF license would
seem better. There is no ambiguity whatsoever that commercial use of
RSAREF is forbidden with very narrow exceptions. (See section 2.b of
the RSAREF license.)

-- 
Christopher Oliver                     Traverse Communications
Systems Coordinator                    223 Grandview Pkwy, Suite 108
oliver@traverse.com                    Traverse City, Michigan, 49684
Am I the last person to think that "leverage" is a noun and not a verb?