Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!rutgers!mephisto!uflorida!unf7!shite
From: shite@unf7.UUCP (Stephen Hite)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: ...Reading the fine print of Borland's license
Message-ID: <280@unf7.UUCP>
Date: 6 Jul 90 20:27:17 GMT
Organization: Univ. of N. Florida, Jacksonville
Lines: 36


   I must confess that this is the first time that I've read a Borland
license agreement...already owning TP 5.5 and TC 2.0...but I was bored
this afternoon and decided to find out what's in a 3 page "no-nonsense"
agreement (TC++ 1.0) if it's all plain talk :-).  Well, the first sentence
looked choice:

   "Programs that you write and compile using Borland's Turbo Language
    compilers may be used, given away or sold without additional license
    or fees, as long as all copies of these programs bear a valid copy-
    right notice."

Hey, but the kicker comes down the page folks...

    "Also, you may not use a Turbo Language product to create, give away,
    sell, license, or otherwise distribute a competitive compiler or inter-
    preter..."

   Hold the phone here, Borland has the legal right to tell me that I cannot
create a C compiler and give it away if I want (i.e. the EXE compiled by
a Borland Language product)?  This sounds like nonsense to me (sounds like
they're scared of healthy competition).  What's the difference if I write
a Paradox clone, a Sprint clone, a Quattro clone or a Turbo C clone?  All of
these are Borland products. 

   Does this imply also that you couldn't use Turbo C and TASM as a bootstrap
development system for a GNU C/C++ port (hypothetically speeking :-))?
I would think not if you distributed it in source form only (which is the
way it's done anyway).  However, if I created a C compiler, used Borland's
TC for the first compile and had my C compiler re-compile itself and THEN
distributed it free of charge, what agreement have I broken?


-----------------------------
Steve Hite
...gatech!uflorida!unf7!shite