Licensing question

[jeross]

I have a client for whom Zimbra appears to solve several problems, but we need to clarify the licensing situation before they go ahead and use it. They are building a commercial subscription-based web application which needs collaboration facilities added to it and are considering using the open source edition because it is likely they will need to make modifications to the source code in order to meet their requirements.

It seems like the terms of the YPL allow them to change the Zimbra source code and expose the resulting functionality to their subscribers for no fee. Their obligations appear to be:

(a) Display the ZimbraInside logo
(b) Submit any source code changes back to Zimbra

Is this correct or am I missing something?

Apologies if this is obvious or has been asked - I just want to be crystal clear on licensing before we/client invest too much effort in Zimbra.

many thanks
J.

[raj]

1) Yes..for Open Source version you HAVE to display the zimbra logo and other copyright info on the MAIN login page ..i resume you can move it around to fit your custom design as long as the SIZE remain same and text is clear

2) if you Enhance/change the source of zimbra and only using it for purposes to sell a SERVICE based on it ..i dont know if its required to "Submit any source code changes back to Zimbra"
I guess if you change and want to sell the SOFTWARE then you may need to...but zimbra experts can clear this out for you.


Raj

[jeross]

Thanks Raj. A couple of follow-up questions (for yourself or for other Zimbra experts):

Login page: The application in question already has its own login page and the current thinking is to invoke Zimbra using it's preauth mechanism. Hence, in this scenario, is it necessary to display the zimbra logo and copyright info on the existing application's login page? btw - we have cooked up a prototype for the preauth mechanism and we notice that it displays the Zimbra logo (a) as a splash screen while waiting for Zimbra to load, (b) when it finally lands in Zimbra. The client does not have a problem with either of these but would probably be reluctant to display the Zimbra logo in the current application login page as it would probably confuse users at this point of the app.

Source code changes: I don't think there is any objection to submitting source code changes even if we do not redistribute the software (i.e. running it as a service).

[raj]

Logically thinking..
1) You are not changing any LOOKS of zimbra so you don’t worry about displaying anything in your Application Login..
When you do pre-auth the splash comes (with zimbra logo) which is OK and then when user is inside the zimbra app the zimbra logo is shown in top..which is OK

So i don’t see any reason why you will need to put zimbra logo in YOUR APP from which you using pre-auth to connect to zimbra.
..unless anyone at zimbra differs

2) Open Source community always happy to take good stuff

Raj