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

Guys and Girls - stop - take stock - this tool is an Alpha release, put into
the public domain so that it may elicit your critique of its usefulness. If
you dont like it; say so. But no reason to get involved in the rights and
wrongs of platforms, licence fees, etc. It's a product in development and IBM
has every right to protect its IPR. 

What's more - having used it for the past few weeks to compare and contrast
with the likes of Bobby, Cybthia Says, WebXact, etc - each with its own pros
and cons (a tool is only as skilled as the hands that uses it) - it will
definitely become a part of my test suite once it is released as a commercial
product. But i probably wont be ditching Bobby - he's a great work horse and
quick to make overall judgements - though sometimes prematurely; or Cynthia -
she's great at contrasting Bobby's findings; and i'll probably keep referring
to the likes of (Judge) Webxact for a third opinion when there's a dispute
between the other two. In the end though, it's me who has to take the
responsiblity for whatever result/answer/interpretation i accept.

Regards
Harry
Ikhaya Internet Consulting
mobile : +44 (0) 794 034 3919
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
Good judgement comes from experience.
Experience, of course, is the result 
of poor judgement.
               - Geoff Tabin

---------- Original Message -----------
From: "Patrick Lauke" <P.H.Lauke@salford.ac.uk>
To: <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Sent: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 14:31:57 +0100
Subject: RE: License conditions Re: aDesigner - was Re: Bobby - a bad tool

> So, to sum it up: look, but don't touch, and even if you like what 
> you see there's still no guarantee that we'll ever release it as a 
> commercial product.
> 
> Nice.
> 
> Patrick
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Charles McCathieNevile [mailto:charles@sidar.org]
> > Sent: 28 October 2004 12:03
> > To: Phill Jenkins
> > Cc: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
> > Subject: License conditions Re: aDesigner - was Re: Bobby - a bad tool
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > I read the license. As I understand it, I am allowed to use this for a
> > maximum of 90 days from the time I install it (which is where 
> > I agree to
> > the license), and only for testing it, not for any actual usage. In
> > fulfilling the license I am also required to keep a record of 
> > when I have
> > copied it.
> > 
> > Furthermore, if IBM releases some commercial product based on this, my
> > right to use it expires immediately, and I have to buy the comercial
> > product.
> > 
> > At the end of either 90 days or the release of commercial 
> > product by IBM I
> > have ten days to remove this from my system.
> > 
> > Then there are a set of conditions that apply according to 
> > the country I
> > was in when I downloaded the software. In general they 
> > specify particular
> > courts where we agree to handle any legal dispute over the software or
> > license, and occasionally they add notes pointing out that the general
> > conditions of teh warranty are not valid in some jurisdictions.
> > 
> > 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
> > comercial version or commercial license).
> > 
> > Does this sound right, or did I miss something?
> > 
> > cheers
> > 
> > Chaals
> > 
> > -- 
> > Charles McCathieNevile           charles@sidar.org
> >                  http://www.sidar.org
> > 
> > <quote who="Phill Jenkins">
> > > I won't comment on the other tools, but I do need to let 
> > you all know
> > > about a new kind of a tool from IBM alphaWorks called 
> > aDesigner.  It does
> > > things no other tools do.  It simulates barriers 
> > experienced by people who
> > > have disabilities so that Web designers can ensure that 
> > their pages are
> > > accessible and usable.
> > >
> > > It is available for evaluation from
> > > http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/adesigner
> > >
> > > Besides the IBM alphaWorks forum discussions, Jim Thatcher 
> > has posted the
> > > only other opinion about it that I know of.
> > >  http://www.jimthatcher.com/news.htm
> > >
> > > btw, although Jim says: "It's free", please read the 
> > alphaWorks license
> > > which let's you evaluate it, not deploy it into production.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > > Phill Jenkins
> > > IBM Worldwide Accessibility Center
> > > http://www.ibm.com/able
> > >
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >
------- End of Original Message -------

Received on Friday, 29 October 2004 13:10:54 UTC