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License

KnowledgeFrame is currently being released under a 100% GPL (General Public License), with added Open Software protection measures. Please read the following text carefully, and make sure that you and your organization will be in full compliance, before downloading the software.

The original GNU General Public License can be read at the GNU Web site ( http://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html).

100% General Public License

Please note that the General Public License, and the Open Software Protection Measures can be restrictive, so if it doesn't meet your needs, contact T4Bi at knowledgeframe@t4bi.com for a Commercial License.

KnowledgeFrame is free to use for those who are 100% GPL. If your application is licensed under GPL or compatible OSI license approved by Templates 4 Business Inc., you are free to ship any GPL software of KnowledgeFrame with your application ('application' means any type of software application, system, tool or utility). You do not need a separate signed agreement with Templates 4 Business Inc., because the GPL license is sufficient. We do, however, recommend you contact us as there usually are good opportunities for partnership and co-marketing.

Under the Open Source License, you must release the complete source code for the application that is built on KnowledgeFrame. You do not need to release the source code for components that are generally installed on the operating system on which your application runs, such as Java runtime libraries or standard Web or Application Server libraries.

Free use for those who never copy, modify or distribute. As long as you never distribute the KnowledgeFrame software in any way, you are free to use it for powering your application, irrespective of whether your application is under GPL license or not.

You are allowed to modify KnowledgeFrame Software source code, subject to conditions in "Open Software Protection Measures" (see below), as long as the distributed derivative work is licensed under the GPL as well.

You are allowed to copy KnowledgeFrame binaries (class libraries) and source code, but when you do so, the copies will fall under the GPL license.

Open Software Protection Measures

The additional Open Software Protection Measures are needed to address issues raised by recent legal events, such as the SCO (Santa Cruz Operations) lawsuit against Linux users. We hope that future versions of the GPL and legal precedents will make these additional provisions unnecessary, but until they do, the additional license measures as follows:

1. Protection against Intellectual Property Owned by Third Parties. This measure gives Templates 4 Business Inc. (T4Bi) the power to accept or reject any code contribution or changes into the KnowledgeFrame code base, and the power to request all contributors to provide indemnification or assurance that none of the contributed code or other artifacts has been stolen, illegally copied, or obtained in a manner that could cause any 3rd party to raise legal claims or objections to KnowledgeFrame or any of its users.

2. Requirement to Clearly Identify Code Branches. This measure requires any party which creates any KnowledgeFrame modified copy, branch, integration package or derivative, which has not been explicitly approved by T4Bi or which may not satisfy the conditions of "Protection against Intellectual Property Owned by Third Parties", to clearly identify the modified code as such, and to ensure that anybody who will download, read or use the modified code is clearly and explicitly informed that this code branch does not meet the T4Bi "Protection against Intellectual Property Owned by Third Parties" criteria.

The purpose of the first measure is to protect anybody who builds KF-based applications against legal actions from 3rd parties (justified or frivolous). The purpose of the second measure is to open the door for anybody who wishes to create a code modification or branch, but is not able or willing to satisfy the first requirement. The ability to create code derivatives and branches is regarded as an important principle of the Open Source movement. At the same time, any subsequent users have the right to know whether their application could potentially be vulnerable to legal challenges by 3rd parties.

If you wish to contribute any code or perform any changes to the KnowledgeFrame base, please contact T4Bi at knowledgeframe@t4bi.com.

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