Which license to use for MFC based software?

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Robert Osfield (robert at openscenegraph.com):

> Does anybody have a link to the Microsoft SDK EULA's in question, I'd
> like to study the document.

The licensing page at which Microsoft initially made the full EULA
available disappeared shortly after the story broke (June 2001) -- and
you will see by visiting
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdn-files/027/001/516/eula_mit.htm
that some sort of clever forced redirect has removed it even from the
Internet Archive.

A number of news sites at the time removed posted copies of the EULA
from their Web forums on grounds that Microsoft Corporation asserts
copyright over the EULA text and that the fair use defence might
not cover mirroring of the entire EULA.

I would suggest calling your nearby Microsoft Corporation office, let
them know you're interested in some particular product, and ask for a
copy of its EULA as part of your product analysis.  (For one thing, 
the firm has been known to apply significantly different licence texts
in various parts of the world, not to mention the diversity across its
product line.)

In particular, please don't assume that the Microsoft trial-balloon
clause of the week is in all Microsoft licences, thereafter:  Some of
these things vanish as quickly as they arrive.

One resource to know about, though it doesn't answer your current
question:  The New Zealand law firm of Clendon Feeney, Barristers &
Solicitors, being somewhat more certain of their ground than most news
and comment Web sites, maintain an archive of the full text of
proprietary software EULAs:  http://proprietary.clendons.co.nz/
(Please help them expand their archive, by sending e-text of appropriate
EULAs to licensing at clendons.co.nz .)

-- 
Cheers,                                        "He who hesitates is frost."
Rick Moen                                                 -- Inuit proverb
rick at linuxmafia.com  
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