ExtJS licencing

[Alex Hudson]

On 12/11/09 07:51, Simon Morris wrote:
> Doing some research I came across one blog that suggests that the
> licencing model is harmful to Free Software
>
> http://pablotron.org/?cid=1556
>
> What is the lists opinion on this? Is ExtJS using the licence fairly and
> is it considered ethical to use the library based on the blogs
> criticisms?
>    


I don't think the licensing model per se is a problem; having dual 
licenses is fine.

The main problem is their legal opinion on the GPLv3, that availability 
of runtime Javascript code and HTML interfaces using ExtJS is actually 
distribution of the application. This legal theory is probably most 
politely described as "esoteric".

However, it's pretty clear that their licensing terms are that you 
cannot use it with a non-free server back-end, which effectively means 
it's not really GPLv3'd.

I would suggest it's not really free software.

Cheers

Alex.