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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. The source code may not be transferred to third parties though, as all
    redistribution must be in compiled binary form.
  • Free Binary Redistribution – All binaries based on, using or containing code from Mibble may be freely redistributed in binary form.
  • 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.

Q5: What does the standard commercial license prohibit?

The commercial Mibble license currently prohibits the following important things:

  • Source Code Redistribution - The original or modified source code from Mibble may not be redistributed, except in compiled binary form.
  • Sublicensing - The commercial Mibble license grants cannot be extended to third parties. I.e. your customers will not have any rights to redistribute Mibble binaries further.

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 for most commercial licensing.

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

Q7: What if the standard license agreement is too restrictive?

If the standard license agreement is not suitable or is too restrictive, customized license agreements can be arranged. Unfortunately, the cost for such an agreement is higher and varies with the amount of administration and additional provisions to include.

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

Copyright © 2003-2007 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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