Dear WINE Developers, Briefly with Bricscad IntelliCAD we have an almost-clone of AutoCAD and we are very successfull in selling it to large corporations under a Coporate License Agreement. Several of our Corporate clients want to start with implementing LINUX in their organization. For their engineering departments they need an AutoCAD alternative that is 100% compatible with it and that can be learned by an AutoCAD user in less then 3 hours. BricsCad has invested a lot in making our version of IntelliCAD a stable, relaible and performant CAD software, that is so close to AutoCAD. We have it now ready in a beta version on LINUX. The products name will be BricsCad for Linux and will use WINE. BricsCad for Linux vs AutoCAD is comparable to what Open Office is vs MS Office. We will support three versions: Red Hat, Suse and Java Desktop. Press release is ready. OUR PROBLEM: We are wondering if we can distribute the Microsoft DLL's with the application without infringing the copyright of Microsoft. The alternative is rewrite some of them, but that would require a couple of months of development and postponing the release of the software. I guess we are not the only ones with this problem? Looking forward to your point of view Erik De Keyser CEO BricsCad www.bricscad.com
On Wed, 2004-02-18 at 08:40, Erik Dekeyser wrote:
We are wondering if we can distribute the Microsoft DLL's with the application without infringing the copyright of Microsoft.
This depends on which MS DLLs you will distribute. Some of them have licenses which permit redistribution under some conditions, particularly the ones you get in compiler products. You need to read and understand the relevant licenses. You should also talk to a lawyer; don't take my word for it. -Vizzini
On Wednesday 18 February 2004 16:40, Erik Dekeyser wrote:
Dear WINE Developers,
OUR PROBLEM: We are wondering if we can distribute the Microsoft DLL's with the application without infringing the copyright of Microsoft. The alternative is rewrite some of them, but that would require a couple of months of development and postponing the release of the software. I guess we are not the only ones with this problem?
You should try to find a package that contains the dlls you need and ready it's license, you may be allowed to redist it's dlls and you may be allowed to redist only the full package... What a few progs did was having a link that downloads a package from ms's site like DCOM and when the users installs it he kind of signs the license in it and you are not redistributing........ p.s. I don't think you will find any realy leagel advice in here only opinions as you can see other disscutions on subjects like this. Hakty.
Erik Dekeyser wrote:
Dear WINE Developers,
Briefly with Bricscad IntelliCAD we have an almost-clone of AutoCAD and we are very successfull in selling it to large corporations under a Coporate License Agreement. Several of our Corporate clients want to start with implementing LINUX in their organization. For their engineering departments they need an AutoCAD alternative that is 100% compatible with it and that can be learned by an AutoCAD user in less then 3 hours. BricsCad has invested a lot in making our version of IntelliCAD a stable, relaible and performant CAD software, that is so close to AutoCAD. We have it now ready in a beta version on LINUX. The products name will be BricsCad for Linux and will use WINE. BricsCad for Linux vs AutoCAD is comparable to what Open Office is vs MS Office. We will support three versions: Red Hat, Suse and Java Desktop. Press release is ready.
OUR PROBLEM: We are wondering if we can distribute the Microsoft DLL's with the application without infringing the copyright of Microsoft. The alternative is rewrite some of them, but that would require a couple of months of development and postponing the release of the software. I guess we are not the only ones with this problem?
Looking forward to your point of view Erik De Keyser CEO BricsCad www.bricscad.com <http://www.bricscad.com>
It all depends on what DLLs you wish to redistribute. Some are explictly allowed to be and most others not. Generally doing a google for "name of dll" and "redistributable" will provide you an answer. Regards, Peter**
On Thu, 19 Feb 2004 06:21, Peter Hunnisett wrote:
It all depends on what DLLs you wish to redistribute. Some are explictly allowed to be and most others not. Generally doing a google for "name of dll" and "redistributable" will provide you an answer.
This is not necessarily enough - it's also necessary to read the terms of the license to see under what circumstances the DLL is redistributable. A lot of Microsoft's "redistributable" DLLs are only redistributable if they are to be used on a genuine Microsoft operating system.
On Thu, 19 Feb 2004 08:46:07 +1100, Troy Rollo wrote:
This is not necessarily enough - it's also necessary to read the terms of the license to see under what circumstances the DLL is redistributable. A lot of Microsoft's "redistributable" DLLs are only redistributable if they are to be used on a genuine Microsoft operating system.
I seem to recall this as being of questionable legality though - something about product tying being illegal? Of course it's all a gray area and do you really want a pissing match with lawyers? Thought not.
participants (6)
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Erik Dekeyser -
hatky -
Mike Hearn -
Peter Hunnisett -
Troy Rollo -
Vizzini