January 1, 2008
Michael L Brereton
www.ewesoft.com
This document describes clearly the terms and conditions of the use of the Eve Virtual Machine in any application, commercial or otherwise. It describes the rights and responsibilities of users and developers of the VM, as well as Ewesoft.com, the developers of the Eve VM.
Eve is released under the GNU Lesser General Public License - a particular version of the GPL which in essence states that the use of this VM within or by a third party application in no way affects the License that may be applied to that application. More explicitly, using the Eve VM in your application does not force your application to also be released under any kind of GPL. The full text of the GPL document may be viewed here: http://www.ewesoft.com/LGPL.txt
Note that if you modify the Eve VM, as you are allowed to do under GPL, and you choose to redistribute the modified version, you must do so under the same LGPL. In other words, you may not charge a fee or royalties for the modified VM - though you may charge a fee for providing support or a warranty for the new version. Again, this does not apply to the Java applications created to run on the VM.
However there is a requirement that the use of the Eve VM be cited in some kind of easy to read document distributed with the application (a simple readme.txt or inclusion in a license.txt file is sufficient) and that the source code for the Eve VM be made available to any users of the application who may wish to get it. This can most easily be done by placing a link to www.ewesoft.com in the declaration of the use of the Eve VM. Note that this only applies if you are distributing the Eve VM or its components (such as eve.dll) with your application. If your application requires the use of the Eve VM, but you will be directing users to the Ewesoft website for download of the VM itself, then you need not take the steps listed in this paragraph.
Again, although the LGPL also mentions aspects of distribution rights, Ewesoft explicitly states that all developers have the right to redistribute the VM (or components of it) along with their application. This allows direct deployment of complete applications to customers without requiring the customer to download the VM from the Ewesoft website. However this is subject to the conditions of the preceding paragraph.
Ewesoft states explicitly that the Eve VM and its components contain no adware, spyware, virus or any kind of application or code which gathers and forwards any information about the system it is installed in, or makes any unexpected changes to the storage system of the target system. This applies only to the components as downloaded directly from www.ewesoft.com. Ewesoft cannot certify any copies of the application not downloaded from these websites.
The Eve VM is offered AS IS with no guarantee of performance, reliability, safety or security. Use of the VM in any application, commercial or otherwise, does not bind Ewesoft to any obligation to enhance, extend, correct or provide any kind of support for the VM. Nor will Ewesoft be held liable for any mishap, injury, death, loss or damage of property or earnings which may arise from the use of the VM. These statements hold unless a separate guarantee or service contract has been agreed between Ewesoft and another party.
Ewesoft explicitly forbids the use of the VM for any application where its performance and correctness is critical for the control of any life support or life protection applications (such as medical life support or safety equipment), or for the operation of potentially life threatening manufacturing or other process. Ewesoft explicitly prohibits the use of the VM in any lethal weapons or lethal weapons manufacturing application.
Ewesoft also makes no guarantee to continue developing and making available for download current or future versions of the Eve VM. However in the event that Ewesoft terminates its development and distribution of the Eve VM, the rights of users or developers who have previously dowloaded the VM and its source are unaffected. They may continue to use and modify the VM under the terms described above.
Additionally, should Ewesoft in the future produce a commercial or royalty based version of the Eve VM (say "SuperEve") this in no way affects the rights of users or developers as they apply to previous versions of the VM. Nor does it oblige Ewesoft to provide the commercial VM or any concessions to previous users of the VM.