On 12/11/09 07:51, Simon Morris wrote:
Doing some research I came across one blog that suggests that the licencing model is harmful to Free Software
http://pablotron.org/?cid=1556
What is the lists opinion on this? Is ExtJS using the licence fairly and is it considered ethical to use the library based on the blogs criticisms?
I don't think the licensing model per se is a problem; having dual licenses is fine.
The main problem is their legal opinion on the GPLv3, that availability of runtime Javascript code and HTML interfaces using ExtJS is actually distribution of the application. This legal theory is probably most politely described as "esoteric".
However, it's pretty clear that their licensing terms are that you cannot use it with a non-free server back-end, which effectively means it's not really GPLv3'd.
I would suggest it's not really free software.
Cheers
Alex.