Re: License conditions Re: aDesigner - was Re: Bobby - a bad tool

> Since I only intend to evaluate the thing, this seems fine. 
>
> But anyone who, for example, wanted their university web 
> designers to use it in order to produce more accessible 
> production content, would be in violation of the license, 
> and liable for damages (likely to be the cost of any
> commercial version or commercial license).
>
> Does this sound right, or did I miss something?
>
> Chaals

Well, you described the limits of the license pretty well, but you're 
missing the point of alphaWorks. 

Let me educate everyone about alphaWorks. It's typically alpha code, not 
so much from a "quality of the code" view, because most of the 
technologies (notice I didn't say products) on alphaWorks are mostly bug 
free, but more from the business point of view that IBM hasn't decided if 
or when or how to release this to the market.  In other words, we are 
looking for your feedback on how you would want to buy it, or rent it, or 
have it bundled with XYZ, etc.  We want your feedback on what IBM should 
or shouldn't develop before we make it available.  The license is there to 
protect our intellectual property rights and at the same time to allow all 
of us to begin business discussions and technical feedback without 
requiring all of you to sign a confidential disclosure agreements (CDA) 
and/or even buy it.  I don't think you want IBM to hide technologies like 
aDesigner from you while we try to decide with you how to release it. 

The university is not in violation just for "wanting" to use it, they just 
need to ask IBM for that purpose.  If you or anyone else wants to get 100 
copies of aDesigner to use in your university, just send me an e-mail 
asking that.  The alphaWorks license doesn't prevent you from asking - in 
fact this license discussion will be healthy if we all come away with a 
better understanding of the process.  Just ask and we'll see what IBM can 
do. 

Some of you may be asking: "Why doesn't IBM just make it easy for me to 
buy a copy NOW and allow me to use it NOW to make site's accessible?" 
Well, obviously that is our hope, or we wouldn't have made it available on 
alphaWorks to get feedback.  But this is our process for involving you 
into the process.  "Feedback" and "alpha" are the two key words here. 

Bob said:
> ... software that will only run on expensive
> proprietary software and equipment,
>
> gotta use ONLY windoze 2000 or XP and IE 6

Not exactly true.  Yes, at the moment  the alphaWorks version is 
configured to use Windows and IE, but it is also explained that aDesigner 
is built on open source http://www.eclipse.org which was written to be 
able to be delivered on multiple platforms such as Linux, Windows, and 
Mac. 

Regards,
Phill Jenkins
IBM Worldwide Accessibility Center
http://www.ibm.com/able