Source Code License Question

[Alessandro]

Hi, we're evaluating the Telerik suite for Wpf and Silverlight. If we decide to buy a license, we'll need the source code as our release schedule is pretty busy and we can't always wait for possible bugs to be officially fixed.

Looking at the License Agreement:

"1.5 .... (1) year update subscription that will provide you with Minor
and Major Updates for the Software as well as access to certain source
code for the Software"

What does exactly "CERTAIN" source code for the software means? We'll need the source code for the whole suite we're buying. Can you please clarify?

Regards,

Alessandro

[Hristo]

Hi Alessandro,

If you purchase a Developer license with Subscription and Priority Support you will get access to the source code for all controls included in our WPF suite. This exact text you cite, refers to all of our products and that is why it has a little broader meaning.

Please, be advised that the Software’s source code is provided to You and Your Licensed Developers for the sole purposes of education and enabling You to understand, at a source code level, why the Software operates as it does.  You may not use the Software’s source code as a basis of development of derivative works of the Software or other software products (1.5.3.1)

Another important part of our license agreement is that Telerik DOES NOT provide technical support for any source code that has been modified by any party other than Telerik (1.5.3.3).

I hope this helps.


Kind regards,
Hristo
the Telerik team

[Alessandro]

Thanks for your answer.

Of course we do not expect you to support any of our developments.

However, to be extremely sure, let's use a real-world scenario: we've built our product using your controls and a customer finds a serious bug which, after our analysis, turns out to be a Telerik's bug. If we find a workaround without touching your code, fine. If we don't and you can't provide a fix in an extremely short amount of time, we're forced to modify the source, rebuild the Telerik DLLs and send the patched  version of our product to the customer. So, we will NOT resell your controls, we just sell a product which uses them.

Are we allowed to do this?

Regards,

Alessandro

[Emilia]

Hello Alessandro,

Yes, you are allowed to do this if you make sure that the DLL files are protected and locked, so that your clients don’t have access to them. If your clients are going to update your project via using our controls in design time, this is considered as violation of our License Agreement and they will have to purchase the appropriate number of licenses for our controls. More information about the redistribution rights is provided in our EULA here: http://www.telerik.com/purchase/license-agreement/telerik-premium-collection.aspx

I hope this information will be helpful for you.

Kind regards,
Emilia
the Telerik team

[Alessandro]

Thanks Emilia, this is the answer I was expecting. However, this is more of a general issue, if I'm not mistaken: whether we rebuild the dlls or not, end-users of a product which is based on Telerik controls will always be able to access the dlls which are installed alongside the product and use them without permission.

Of course we are against this behavior, but there isn't much we can do to prevent it from happening, asides from following the assembly protection guidelines reported here:
http://www.telerik.com/purchase/license-agreement/assembly-protection-guidelines.aspx

I'm sorry to insist on the issue, but redistribution and licensing matters are vital for our evaluation of your product, and we must be absolutely sure about them before committing to Telerik.

Long story short, we will do whatever you state to protect your assemblies and give you copyright where it's due, but if any of our customer decides to break the law, we can't be held responsible for that and the issue shall be dealt between you and the (possible) offender.

That said, we never had such issues with our customers and we use several third party libraries in our product.

Thanks for your patience,

Alessandro.

[David]

We recently realized this portion of the EULA:

1.3.3: You must ensure that the Software is not distributed in any form that allows it to be reused by any application other than Your solution. Technical guidelines are provided here: http://www.telerik.com/purchase/license-agreement/assembly-protection-guidelines.aspx. Please contact [e-mail] for any additional questions.

WPF: http://www.telerik.com/purchase/license-agreement/wpf.aspx 
Silverlight: http://www.telerik.com/purchase/license-agreement/silverlight.aspx 

QUESTION: A product release is planned within the coming weeks. Given a plan to incorporate and build from the Telerik source code for a future release, would it be acceptable to produce this current release using the binaries provided by Telerik? 

Thanks!

David

[Dimitrina]

Hello,

If I understand you correctly you are asking whether you can use our binaries for your current release version and for your future version. If this is the case there will be no problem using Telerik binaries with your current release.

If I have misunderstood the question, would you please clarify it in more details?
  

Regards,
Didie
Telerik