Averna Ballon Tip license type

[X___]

I am confused about the license type of the Balloon Tip addon from Averna.

The license text that shows up in VIPM does not mention any type, but somewhere says that:

"1.    GRANT OF LICENSE. Subject to the provisions of this Agreement, Averna grants Licensee a limited, personal, nonexclusive, nontransferable, non-assignable license to use the free Averna BALLOON Software (the “Software”) for your internal personal or business use (non-commercial) in accordance with the terms herein.

...

5.    RESTRICTIONS. You may not sub-license, assign, rent, lease, transfer or otherwise distribute the Software. You may not reverse engineer, port, decompile, translate, alter, modify, disassemble the Software or merge the Software into any other software or otherwise attempt to discover the source code. You may not use the Software on another hardware platform. Averna reserves the right to make changes to its products or services without notice or obligation to notify any person of such changes."

I was trying to find some wording to the effect that you can use the toolkit provided you include the license file, but the part I emphasized above seems to say you can use it for "internal" (to your business) use.

First, I don't quite see how even for an internal use you can use the software without "merging" it into your own (in the sense that the code will need to be integrated to the rest to be actually used).

And second, what is the purpose of a piece of code that you cannot share with others than those in your "business"?

I am suspecting that the license file has simply been badly written.

Any hint of what to do (save for avoiding the toolkit at all cost)?

[JKSH]

It feels strange to me too. As I understand it, the "no merge" clause makes libraries legally unusable by others.

A quick search reveals that the "no merge" clause is found in numerous different software licenses: https://www.google.com/search?q="merge+the+Software+into+any+other+software" My best guess is that the clause was originally written for standalone applications (meaning that you're meant to run the software as-is, without copying its source code into your own, or linking your own software to its binaries). However, somewhere along the way the clause got copied directly into a library license, without the involvement of a lawyer who understands software licensing.

Perhaps @mabe can clarify? He helped at: 

 

Edited Tuesday at 01:35 AM by JKSH

[X___]

19 hours ago, JKSH said:

It feels strange to me too. As I understand it, the "no merge" clause makes libraries legally unusable by others.

A quick search reveals that the "no merge" clause is found in numerous different software licenses: https://www.google.com/search?q="merge+the+Software+into+any+other+software" My best guess is that the clause was originally written for standalone applications (meaning that you're meant to run the software as-is, without copying its source code into your own, or linking your own software to its binaries). However, somewhere along the way the clause got copied directly into a library license, without the involvement of a lawyer who understands software licensing.

Perhaps @mabe can clarify?

That would great if someone from Averna could clarify that license.

I can of course replace it by some alternative approach (especially since it behaves pretty badly when moving the parent window around, flickering like a bad neon sign :-).

[mabe]

I confirm that this license is nearly identical to the standard EULA we use for our commercial products. Some wording is not applicable to a distributed palette of VIs like this.

Our intention was to share a few reusable tools, used internally, with the community. Ideally, we should have released them under a standard open-source license such as MIT or a similar option.

These VIs have been released “as-is,” without support or any guarantee that they will function for your specific use case. You may need to troubleshoot or fix any issues on your own. Feel free to use them in any context.

I’ll look into whether it's possible to update the packages on the tool network to replace the current license with a more standard open-source one.

[hooovahh]

Thanks for still monitor these forums to help give answers.  It sounds like the intent is to allow free use in any context, being the literal person I am, interprets accessing the block diagram as "discovering the source code" which would violate it.  This is also a good exercise in reading the license agreements, for things you download.

[X___]

At this point, I have removed the single occurrence where I had used the toolkit, as the license would have been problematic to make my code acceptable as reusable.