Ruboss Technology Corporation

The Ruboss Framework is a dual-licensed framework: it is available under the GPL v3 (GNU General Public License v3, http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html) or under the terms of the Ruboss Commercial License.

This means the following, as far as we understand the GPL v3:

• You can use the Ruboss Framework in your closed-source Flex applications without needing to open source them. (This would not have been true if we had chosen the AGPL, the GNU Affero General Public License.)
• You can use the Ruboss Framework in a GPL v3-licensed AIR application.
• You cannot use the Ruboss Framework in a closed-source AIR application without buying a commercial license from Ruboss.

This boils down to the following simple rule:

Flex = Free, AIR = Commercial

Why the distinction?

It all hinges on what the GPL v3 means by distribution.

Briefly, the “non-distribution loophole” we are interpreting in your favour is as follows. Note that this does not constitute legal advice; please consult your own lawyer for legal advice regarding the GPL v3:

As we are interpreting the GPL v3, organizations building Flex applications with the Ruboss Framework that are in-browser only (i.e. that are Adobe Flex applications, not Adobe AIR applications) do NOT need to purchase a Commercial License. We are interpreting the GPL v3’s notion of “distribution” to mean that building a Flex application (that is hosted on a server which is not sold or distributed to the client) based on the Ruboss Framework does not constitute distribution as far as the GPL v3 is concerned, since it is in-browser only instead of traditional software.

However, building an AIR application based on the Ruboss Framework definitely constitutes distribution per the GPL v3, since you are giving away or selling software in the traditional sense. So, in this case you would have to either (A) release all your AIR application source code under a GPL-compatible Free Software License as defined by the Free Software Foundation or approved by OSI or (B) purchase a Commercial License from Ruboss Technology Corporation.

The Commercial License is an agreement with Ruboss Technology Corporation for organizations that do not want to release their Adobe AIR application source code, or that do not want to release their Adobe Flex application source code and that cannot rely on our interpretation of what we are calling the “non-distribution loophole” in the GPL v3.

So, you should purchase a Commercial License from Ruboss Technology Corporation if you:

• are building an AIR application and do not want to release your source code as open source
• are building an Adobe Flex application and you (or your firm’s lawyer) decides you cannot rely on our very favourable interpretation of the “non-distribution loophole” in the GPL v3, or you decide that it is probably cheaper to just purchase an unambiguously safe commercial license than it is to even ask your lawyer to investigate whether the GPL v3 is safe to use
• are a Flex developer and you do not want to have to explain the GPL v3 to your clients
• want to support the development of the Ruboss Framework since it saves you so much time

Commercial license customers get a commercially supported product with assurances from Ruboss. They are also free from the requirement of making their own AIR application open source.

If your AIR application is not licensed under a GPL-compatible Free Software License as defined by the Free Software Foundation or approved by OSI, and you intend to or you may distribute Ruboss software, you must first obtain a commercial license to the Ruboss product. See the notes about distribution regarding Adobe Flex applications above.

Typical examples of Ruboss distribution include:

• Selling an Adobe AIR application that includes Ruboss to customers who install the software on their own machines.
• Selling an Adobe AIR application that requires customers to install Ruboss themselves on their own machines.
• Building a hardware system that includes Ruboss (either running with an Adobe Flex application OR an Adobe AIR application) and selling that hardware system to customers for installation at their own locations. This is not the normal case of Adobe Flex distribution, so if you are selling hardware including the Ruboss Framework you are definitely distributing the Ruboss Framework.

Specifically:

• If you include the Ruboss Framework with an Adobe AIR application that is not licensed under the GPL or GPL-compatible license, you need a commercial license for the Ruboss Framework.
• If you develop and distribute a commercial application and as part of utilizing your application, the end-user must download a copy of Ruboss; for each derivative work, you (or, in some cases, your end-user) need a commercial license for the Ruboss Framework.
• GPL users have no direct legal relationship with Ruboss Technology Corporation. The commercial license, on the other hand, is Ruboss Technology Corporation’s private license, and provides a direct legal relationship with Ruboss Technology Corporation.

With a commercial, non-GPL v3, Ruboss Framework license, one license is required per developer writing code using the Ruboss Framework. For example, if you have 4 developers who develop Ruboss Framework-based software using 7 computers in total, you need 4 Ruboss Framework licenses, not 7.

There is no per-user deployment cost: the license is a developer license.

Non-Profits and Academic Institutions

If you represent a non-profit organization or an academic institution, we recommend you publish your application as an open source / free software project using the GPL license. In this manner, you are free to use Ruboss software free of charge under the GPL license. We believe that if you have strong reasons to not publish your application in accordance with the GPL, you should purchase commercial licenses. Note that non-profits may apply to Ruboss for free commercial licenses and such applications will be carefully considered. To apply for a non-profit commercial license, please email peter@ruboss.com explaining what you are doing and how many licenses you want and (assuming your request is approved) we’ll email you a license key as a receipt.

Please note that even if you ship a free demo version of your own application, the above rules apply.

Recommendations

Please note that Ruboss Technology Corporation can only give advice on which license is right for you. The final judgment, of course can be made only by a court of law. With that said, we recommend the commercial license to all commercial and government organizations. This frees you from the broad and strict requirements of the GPL license.

To all free software enthusiasts we recommend our products under the GPL license. We believe that Ruboss Technology Corporation is a progressive, responsible company that contributes to the open source and free software communities while still delivering value to our shareholders. We are a progressive company where every employee is a shareholder.

To anyone in doubt, we recommend the commercial license. It is never wrong.