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What is the SCSL?

April 26, 2017SCSL

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What is the SCSL?

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The SCSL is the “Sun Community Software License” that can be found http://java.sun.com/communitysource/. It is not compatible with Free Software for several reasons, and agreeing to this license (e.g. by downloading source covered by the SCSL) will make it impossible for you to contribute to free software clean-room implementations. According to Sun, this includes using documentation and API specifications available only under SCSL. To quote one open source developer, the SCSL is “about as free as the former Soviet Union”. However, if you have never agreed to the SCSL, then it is still permissible, barring any patents that Sun has for the technology, for you to create your own clean room version of the 1.2 API. It is important that you never agree to the license, even for the documentation. For example, if you buy a printed book which describes the API, there is a long legal history (in the US at least), that prohibits attaching these kinds of contracts to books.