Using System.Reactive in .NET 3.5 (in a shipping product)

Question

This question is no longer relevant now that microsoft have released a proper version of the Rx framework on devlabs

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Original Question

I've downloaded the Silverlight 3 toolkit and rebased System.Reactive.dll to work on the .NET 3.5 CLR, and am really enjoying using it.

What I'd like to know is, can I ship it?

• The codeplex site for the SL toolkit states that the license for the toolkit is MS-PL
• I've poked around with it in reflector and found no additional license information

I'm thinking that I may be able to ship it under the MS-PL license, but at the same time it feels like I shouldn't, because I had to rebase the dll, and because I've still yet to see any official word from Microsoft about releasing the reactive framework.

The alternative is either to just do without IObservable's until .NET 4.0, or write my own ripoff version of System.Reactive - I'd probably end up going with writing a ripoff version, even though this would waste some time.

Has anyone else thought about this issue, and is anyone else using/shipping the dll?

Answer 1

MS-PL "grants you a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free copyright license to reproduce its contribution, prepare derivative works of its contribution, and distribute its contribution or any derivative works that you create" (emphasis added). I'm not a lawyer, but that seems pretty explicit.

(This is subject to some other criteria laid out in part 3 of the licence but none of them seem to inhibit derivative works, they're more about reproducing copyright notices and not suing anybody when your Rx-based nuclear power station blows up.)

Answer 2

Now the Rx is available directly for Framework 3.5 SP1, Along with downloads for .NET Framework 4.0 beta and for Silverlight 3.0

Download the version you need from here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/devlabs/ee794896.aspx