Use of Sun's JMS package for a Merlin JMS Facility

[J Aaron Farr <fa...@apache.org>]

Hello.

With all the recent licensing discussion, I figured I'd better ask first before
continuing any development...

I've been thinking about starting work on the JMS facility for Merlin based on
my MDS design over at PheonixJMS.  One issue though:  I need to use the
javax.jms package.  This package is licensed under Sun's Binary Code License
Agreement which means, AFAIK, we cannot host the library in our CVS or on our
webservers (ie- in a repository).

However, Geronimo has a "geronimo-spec-jms" jar that is available over at
ibiblio.org [1] which also contains the javax.jms package.  I assume they have
some sort of agreement from Sun which allows this packaging (seeing that
Geronimo will follow the J2EE spec).  The LICENSE in the jar is an Apache License.

Does anyone know if we can also use these packages?

Is there any other legal option to build this package without requiring each
developer and user to individually download the jms package from Sun?

Ideas are welcome!

---
  jaaron      <http://jadetower.org>

[1] http://ibiblio.org/maven/geronimo-spec/jars/

Re: Use of Sun's JMS package for a Merlin JMS Facility

[Jacek Laskowski <jl...@apache.org>]

J Aaron Farr wrote:

> Hello.

Hey,

> However, Geronimo has a "geronimo-spec-jms" jar that is available over at
> ibiblio.org [1] which also contains the javax.jms package.  I assume they have
> some sort of agreement from Sun which allows this packaging (seeing that
> Geronimo will follow the J2EE spec).  The LICENSE in the jar is an Apache License.

AFAIUI, there's no agreement between ASF (Apache Geronimo) and Sun to 
provide with an open source javax.jms package. Anyone is allowed to do 
it as long as (s)he hasn't peeped at Sun's source code, and the whole 
work is based on the JMS specification and javadoc.

Apache Geronimo's folks decided to provide the open source 
implementation just to bundle required J2EE jars without a fear about 
violating ASF and Sun policies.

> Does anyone know if we can also use these packages?

Everything that belongs to Geronimo can be incorporated in a code as 
long as the code doesn't violate the license: 
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.

> Is there any other legal option to build this package without requiring each
> developer and user to individually download the jms package from Sun?

Why would anyone look for alternatives as Geronimo already provides it 
and it's owned by ASF?

> Ideas are welcome!

I do hope I haven't provided you with any misleading information. That's 
how I see it.

>   jaaron      <http://jadetower.org>

Cheers,
Jacek