WebObjects Deployment license change
There have been a lot of questions about when and where one can deploy WebObjects applications to non-Apple platforms. The new license agreement attempts to address these questions (from paragraph 2D):
Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, you may also deploy server applications built with the WebObjects Software on any platform.
I hope that clears things up.
Apparently not. Ok. To rephrase: Take the key included with the dev tools and deploy wherever the hell you want to (within the terms of the license). Just don’t come crying to Apple when you deploy on an AmEx blue card and you find some mysterious transactions in the Caymans on your next statement.
November 15th, 2005 at 5:43 am
Kinda clears things up - but do I have to pay for a license to deploy on another platform - or does the free xcode 2.2 license allow me to deploy WebObjects apps on other platforms for free?
November 15th, 2005 at 12:07 pm
I have the same question as Jake
And, if one needs a license for deployment on Linux/Windows… servers, where can I buy the license ?
November 15th, 2005 at 5:14 pm
Do mean to say that WebObjects is now free provided you use a Mac for development?
November 15th, 2005 at 7:24 pm
Ok, I got that you can try to deploy it anywhere - didn’t work on my Commodore PET, will retry
- but is deployment free ?
On http://www.apple.com/webobjects/specs.html it says:
—
Flexible Deployment
[...]
Flexible, low-cost licensing
Requires only one license per machine , regardless of platform, speed, or number of processors
_____
However, if you check out the license that Apple installs together with WO and Xcode, you’ll get the following license “for free”:
WebObjects Deployment 5.3 Unlimited Requests MultiThreading: Yes LoadBalancing: Yes
_____
If a license is indeed needed for each machine, a Windows or Linux admin will have trouble extracting the license from the OS X Server box, no ? It would make sense to present it on a sticker in the OS X Server box…
November 15th, 2005 at 7:28 pm
Or another option
The text on http://www.apple.com/webobjects/specs.html still applies to WO 5.3
and simply wasn’t updated yet for WO 5.3.1…
Will a wise soul enlighten me, thank you.
November 18th, 2005 at 5:30 am
well that is fantastic news!!!
November 18th, 2005 at 5:31 am
now - about open sourcing it…
November 18th, 2005 at 9:04 am
… and to get the development license for Xcode 2.2 (hence WO 5.3) you have to first go through the ADC NDA contract. So, it is confidential information. I’d like to hear from a Apple lawyer.
It would be nice if Xcode 2.2 and above was released to production, without a ADC NDA first. I would *love* to *buy* Xcode 2.2 with a Mac OS X v10.4.3 production CD (instead of having to download it through the ADC site with the NDA).
November 18th, 2005 at 9:23 am
… also it says: “server applications”. It does little good to be able to deploy the “server application” I built on a platform that has no WebObjects services on it (similar to the difference between being able to deploy a “desktop application” built with Xcode on Mac OS X to Windows or Linux for example).
and this link: http://www.apple.com/webobjects/specs.html defines “Platforms” as Mac OS X Server v10.4.1. It would be nice if Apple updated that page to include other platforms.
Sorry to be obtuse and picky, but I think the language in the license is a little too brief and I can’t figure out the “splitting hair” details of it. If an Apple Lawyer could spell it out that would be better.
November 18th, 2005 at 9:51 am
@Iance:
It’s clear to me deployment is legal (again). But the details aren’t cleared yet:
http://lists.apple.com/archives/webobjects-dev/2005/Nov/msg00353.html
They will get back to the Apple WO mailing list once that is cleared up.
I guess a lot of info on the web pages, maybe even in the distribution license agreement wasn’t updated yet…
November 18th, 2005 at 10:44 am
… hi, me again. I went to the Apple Store and now the Tiger CD box image says “10.4.3 Now Inside”. Yippie! Does that mean that Xcode 2.2 (with WO 5.3) is also inside, and hence not under NDA anymore? If so, I need to buy a few of those suckers ASAP!
November 21st, 2005 at 7:14 am
to lance:
Xcode 2.2 is _not_ under any NDA. You can download it with an unprivileged ADC account, without having signed anything. The ADC account is needed, but the NDA is not.
On the xcode mailing list, this was explicitly clarified by an Apple engineer.
Also, the 10.4.3 boxes do not contain Xcode 2.2; the builds went golden master before the release of 2.2.
See here.
November 22nd, 2005 at 10:35 am
Pius, I can see it now… developer downloads GM release of [insert favorite software, lets say Mac OS X] and posts results and cool stuff to web the day before a “Steve keynote”. Same difference. When you sign up for that free “unprivileged ADC account” (what is that anyways?) make sure to read term 6.
Our lawyer told us to wait to buy it in a store. Yours may say different, that is up to you. Anyways, thanks to Chris for letting me know 2.2 is not on the new DVD. That is all I wanted to know.
November 22nd, 2005 at 11:26 am
Read the agreement. Specifically, the confidentiality clause has an exclusion for information that Apple makes generally available to the public. WebObjects with Xcode 2.2 is a production release that is generally available.
The ADC site is worded in an unfortunate fashion. I’ll report that as a bug.
November 22nd, 2005 at 12:03 pm
I did read the agreement. Xcode 2.2 was released to anyone that joins the ADC (you can’t get it otherwise) and agrees to term (6); thus it is NOT released to the general public. If you could get the wording fixed and put up a public URL where any one can get it (without agreeing to the ADC terms and without that nasty warning on the download page in the grey area) then that would then be released to the general public. If you could define “platform” then that would also be a good thing to do. Sorry for being so picky. I would only imagine that a data center would want to be picky about things like this (and some are, not all). Thanks bbum!
November 22nd, 2005 at 7:25 pm
Also, “… you may also deploy server applications built with the WebObjects Software on any platform.” sound like: “you may deploy something which was built on any platform”, instead of “you may deploy to any platform something which was built with WebObjects.” ie: the word “on” should have been “to” at least. But, really, the whole sentence is way to brief to understand its exact meaning and I really wonder about related things such as bundled WO java client code for instance.
I really don’t care about this too much because I’m just a developer and all I want to do is deploy to Mac OS X Server anyways. I imagine in a few months a new Xcode will be distributed with a pressed Mac OS X DVD, and that is all I’m interested in buying. But other types may be interested in other things. thanks! -lance
November 23rd, 2005 at 2:38 pm
The new WO 5.3.1 license key does not work on non-Apple server platforms.
So while the license has been changed, the license key for WO 5.3.1 dows not work on platforms other than OS X Server, but the older WO 5.3 key works.
Could anybody make this work on WO 5.3.1 on Linux or Windows ?
November 25th, 2005 at 6:52 am
I can confirm that the WO 5.3.1 license key does not work when deploying under JBoss 3.2 on Windows 2003 Server.
: Cannot be initialized.: The License key [deleted for web] is invalid.
“Take the key included with the dev tools and deploy wherever the hell you want to…” - I don’t think so.
So *legally* Apple have made it possible to deploy on any platform, however *technically* & in practice it is impossible - surely this can’t be right!?
November 25th, 2005 at 10:22 am
@Neale: Thank you for your confirmation !
No, this can’t be right.
Due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the US, I guess we will have to wait a little longer on an answer from Apple to resolve the technical issue.
November 25th, 2005 at 11:40 am
I’m hoping this is a rather simple mistake on Apple’s part of including an incorrect license string with WO 5.3.1.
In previous versions when you attempted to deploy with a platform-specific key on another platform the error message was a lot more explicit - it told you what you were trying to do was unsupported. Similarly if you attempted to deploy using a development license etc, etc…
However this error message ‘License Key is invalid’ - seems to indicate that the license checking code isn’t even getting as far as assessing the capabilities of the license - it looks like its tripping up straight away. However what is weird is that plugging the 5.3.1 license into the the WOLicenseUpgrader.app does seem to decode it and reports it as a “5.3 Deployment - Multithreaded - Unlimited requests”
As other people have reported the old 5.3 development key will allow you to deploy on non-Apple platforms under 5.3.1.
Hope this helps.
November 25th, 2005 at 12:15 pm
Filed Radar #4354596 for this at bugreport.apple.com
November 28th, 2005 at 1:23 pm
@Neale:
Posted your bug report number and my doubts to the WO mailing list, since the license question came up there once again:
http://lists.apple.com/archives/Webobjects-dev/2005/Nov/msg00596.html
Hope this helps, thanks for filing it.
December 12th, 2005 at 6:47 am
Update: Apple has posted a temporary, unsupported workaround to solve the deployment problem:
http://lists.apple.com/archives/webobjects-dev/2005/Dec/msg00191.html