SUN Binary Code License

[Danese Cooper]

Rick's answer is nearly perfect, one small correction...

>And they were as good as their word -- and then some.  That refers to
>the OpenOffice project, which is developing the Open Office 6.0
>successor to the Star Office 5.2 codebase (http://www.openoffice.org/).
>The library and component-framework code released by Sun (from
>StarDivision's codebase) is LGPLed.  Other code is dual-licensed under
>GPL and the Sun Industry Standards Source License (SISSL).

OpenOffice.org is indeed the site hosting the successor to StarOffice 5.2, 
which will be called StarOffice 6.0 in its Sun-branded incarnation.  The 
code is being developed transparently at that site.  That part was 100% 
correct in Rick's telling.  The small correction is that ALL the code is 
dual licensed under the LGPL and the SISSL.  Code contributors are asked 
to assign their copyright to Sun so that the code can forever be dually 
licensed.  Both the LGPL and the SISSL are OSI and FSF approved licenses, 
and the licensees of the code gets to choose which license they prefer.

>Please note that the 5.2 source code was never released to the public
>under _any_ terms, and presumably never will be.  Third-party rights are 
>involved.  

Correct.  As has been stated many times, there are components of StarOffice 
that can't be redistributed by Sun in source form (the INSO Spellchecker 
is one example).  These components will still appear in StarOffice 6.0, but 
will never be part of the OpenOffice.org codebase.  The community is already 
working on plugging in open and free alternatives for the proprietary 
functionality.

Danese Cooper
Sun Open Source