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366

answers:

2

Hello,

i´have read the Ms-PL under the Homepage of Unity, but its not clear for me what i need to do, when i use Unity in my commercial programm?

I only use the binary files and i want to distribute them along with my programm.

  • Do i have to provide a license-file anywhere?
  • Do i have to tell anywhere in my programm that i´m using Unity (maybe in an AboutDialog)?
  • May i put the used 'Unity' assemblies (not all) in the setup of my programm or must i include the full setup (Microsoft Download) of 'Unity' and install it?
+1  A: 

You can find a lawyer for that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shared_source#Microsoft_Public_License_.28Ms-PL.29

Lex Li
Thanks, but i found that already and it didn´t help me.
Jehof
If you really have concerns about Ms-PL, you can try other DI containers. There is really a lot of them, such as StructureMap.http://structuremap.sourceforge.net/Default.htm
Lex Li
A: 

A while ago, i asked the guys from Unity Application Block, about the commercial use of this library. Here´s what they say

I am not a lawyer. Licensing is fundamentally a legal question, not a technical question. And you cannot trust anything from a lawyer that you're not paying. So if you're betting a business on this (or any other library / software), get an attorney to look at the license and give you an actual legal opinion.

Having said that, the intention is for the code & binaries to be usable in whatever way you like. Take just the binaries you want, and distribute them however you like. You can also distribute the source code, or even make changes to it and distribute them. What you cannot do:

1) Claim that you wrote it.

2) Remove copyright notices on the current source files or binaries (which are in the binary's resources).

3) Sue anyone over patent infringement in the Unity software and continue to use it.

4) Edit the source code and release it under a different (well, incompatible) license. The upshot of this is you can't take the unity source and re-release it under GPL.

5) Your software's license must be compatible with Ms-PL as far as redistribution of Unity is concerned. Commercial licenses are fine.

I think that's about it. It's an OSI approved open source license, and is about as free as you can get.

Again, though, if you're actually concerned, get an attorney, don't listen to an engineer. The law doesn't make anywhere near enough sense for an engineer to understand. ;-)

Jehof