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Frequent Questions - Commercial Licensing

This document attempts to answer some of the common questions regarding the commercial Mibble licensing.

Q1: Is Mibble "commercial" software?

Yes, the Mibble software is sold under various commercial software licenses. The standard license allows a broad usage of the library for various commercial purposes. Custom licensing is also possible, see Q7 for more information.

Apart from the commercial licenses, Mibble is also available as a free download under the GNU General Public License (GPL). See the GPL licensing FAQ for more information.

Q2: How can Mibble be available under several licenses?

A software license agreement is a legal agreement between the copyright holder(s) for the software and a licensee. Different such agreements can be met with different licensees. As Mibble currently has a single copyright holder, establishing new agreements is a straightforward process with a minimal legal overhead.

Please note that Mibble is not associated with the Free Software Foundation or its GNU project, although the same free software license is used.

Q3: Are the commercial versions identical to the free versions?

Yes, the source code in the commercial Mibble versions is identical to the one used in the free versions.

No, as the packaging is slightly different for the commercial and free versions. In particular the differences are the following:

  • GPL license not included – Obviously, the GPL license is not applicable to a commercially licensed version of Mibble.
  • JAR file names are different – To simplify distinction between the two versions, the JAR file names are different.

Q4: What does the standard commercial license provide?

The commercial Mibble license provide the following:

  • Full Source Code Availability – The full source code for the Mibble library is available and permission is granted to make proprietary changes.
  • Free Redistribution – Software based on, using or containing code from Mibble may be redistributed in either binary or source code form. This permission does not extend to third parties, however.
  • No Royalties, No Expiration – The license is perpetual, contains no further royalty payments, and does not restrict usage to any particular product, purpose or developer.

Please note that any software bundled with Mibble is covered by their own respective license. See Q5 for information about license restrictions.

Q5: What does the standard commercial license exclude?

The standard commercial Mibble license currently excludes the following:

  • Reselling – The Mibble library may not be resold to third parties without being bundled into an application or another library.
  • Sublicensing – The commercial Mibble license grants are not extended to third parties. That is, your customers are not legally permitted to redistribute your Mibble binaries or source code further.
  • Additional Agreements – The standard license is purchased online without any additional legal agreements, whether in the form of signed printouts, non-disclosure agreements, software supplier contracts or otherwise.

If these restrictions are problematic, see Q7 for more information.

Q6: Where can I find the standard license agreement?

The standard Mibble license agreement is available from this web site and is used as the base for all commercial licenses.

Please note that a custom license agreement is also possible to purchase, see Q7 for more information.

Q7: What are the alternatives to the standard license agreement?

If the standard license agreement is not suitable or is too restrictive, a custom license agreement can be made. There are several reasons to prefer this over the standard one:

  • Additional Contracts or Legal Agreements – If your company requires additional contracts or legally binding documents to be signed, a custom license is required.
  • Modified License Text – Although the standard license agreement is quite permissive, there are situations where an even more liberal approach is needed. There are also cases when the license agreement text needs clarification.

Unfortunately, the cost of a custom license agreement is higher (see the price list). This is caused by additional administration costs, legal review of contracts and various shipping and handling costs. Any additional provisions made in the license will also be reflected in a higher price (in contrast to plain clarifications).

Please write to sales@percederberg.net if you have further questions or comments regarding custom licensing.

Copyright © 2003-2012 Per Cederberg. Permission is granted to copy this document verbatim in any medium, provided that this copyright notice is left intact.

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