CroPL License Terms

CroPL is a licensed product. While it is provided as modifiable source code, it is not "Open Source" in the conventionally used sense of the term. In particular, you are not granted the right to further distribute the source code; and use of the code in your own projects is subject to payment of the license fees (see below).

The fees and terms are described completely below. I regret the necessity to charge for CroPL, but maintaining and supporting it takes a large amount of my time, and I do hope to make it my full time job someday.

By using this source code, or code derived from this source code, you are agreeing to the following terms and conditions:

1. Primarily, the source code is provided AS IS, and no warranty is provided as to its usefulness, correctness, or applicability to any particular purpose, except as noted below. In particular, Christopher Kempke will not be held responsible for any damages caused by the use, failure to use, or misuse of this product, even if he has been advised in advance of the possibility of such damages. IN PARTICULAR, note that CroPL itself is, and will perpetually remain, a work-in-progress. It is not bug-free, although the code is tested regularly.
2. Warranty: If you choose not to use CroPL after licensing (for any reason), you may notify me within 90 days for a full refund of the license fees. This will terminate your license to use CroPL. In no event will Christopher Kempke be liable for an amount greater than the license fee paid for this software.
3. Support: CroPL is supported by e-mail (ckempke@mac.com). While I will attempt to handle bug fixes in a timely fashion, the amount of time I can devote to CroPL varies from week to week. Feature requests from customers and my own needs dictate the development direction of CroPL, but there is no guarantee of any particular requested feature being added in a timely fashion (or at all).
4. This code should not be used in critical, medical, aviation, nuclear, or other potentially life- or health- endangering applications ("dangerous" applications), because it has not been subjected to the necessary analysis for such use. Christopher Kempke will not be held liable for damages caused by such use. Use in dangerous applications is at the user's own risk, and proper software engineering techniques for quality assurance in such circumstances should be followed.
5. The laws of some states may prohibit certain of these limitations and exclusions, in which case they may not apply to you. Should any provision of this agreement be found to be unenforcable, all other provisions remain in force.
6. This is a software product, and is licensed, not sold. If the software was provided on physical media or with paper manuals, you own these materials, but not the software itself. All materials are Copyright 2002, Christopher Kempke, unless a more specified copyright appears in the particular file or document. Payment of the license fees (see below) allows the use of this software in derivative works, but does not transfer ownership of this software to the creator of such works.
7. Because of the nature of this product, you MAY reverse-engineer, disassemble, or modify this code for your own use, provided proper licensing fees have been paid. However, such modified copies of the code are still bound by the terms of this agreement, and may not be redistrubuted, licensed, or sold except as part of a larger application, and only in compiled (non-source code) form.
8. No copyright notice is necessary in derivative works except as required to protect YOUR copyright. If you wish to acknowledge the CroPL code, the copyright should read "Portions Copyright (c) 2002, Christopher Kempke."
9. Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES may this software be redistributed in source-code form without explicit permission from Christopher Kempke or Crystalfire Software.
10. Fees:

    This source code may be used for non-profit applications without fee, provided that proper copyright is maintained. "Non-profit" is defined here as software, released to the public, for which no fee is charged beyond cost-of-media or nominal downloading fees. This is often called "Freeware," but should not be confused with "Free Software" as defined by the FSF and other organizations.

    Hobbyists and others writing software in non-commercial environments, for their own use, may use CroPL without fee. However, if software created in this fashion is eventually sold, it becomes subject to the terms in the rest of this section.

    Shareware is defined here as complete software (not demos or crippled copies) released on a try-before-you-buy basis, with a retail value of $40 or less. Shareware authors may license CroPL for their choice of: one fully-registered copy of any application developed with it, or $100. This includes updates for the life of the product, and "as-time-permits" e-mail support.

    Full-time students at an accredited institution may use CroPL for non-commercial use without fee. For commercial use, contact me and indicate that you are a student developer.

    For any other commercial use (anything sold or used to generate profits, including in-house systems developed in for-profit companies), contact me for licensing terms. These terms will generally be 8 percent of the total end-user price of the product, but fixed price terms may be negotiated. (In-house development and other "not for sale" uses will be by yearly maintenance contract.) Commercial development licenses include e-mail support.

    Evaluation: You may download and evaluate CroPL's applicability to your software for 60 days without charge. This does not give you the right to sell any CroPL-based product, the evaluation must remain internal.

    Your CroPL license remains in force even if you choose not to purchase upgrades; you may continue to use the last version of CroPL that was available before your maintenance plan expired. However, the crystalfiresw.com web site will not typically have downloads for non- current CroPL versions available; you'll need to archive the code on your own.

11. Notification: I strongly encourage non-fee-paying users of CroPL to send me e-mail indicating what you are doing with it. This tells me in what directions I should focus my work. If you want to be informed of updates and other significant events in the "CroPL Universe," let me know - I maintain an e-mail list for that purpose (and no other; the list is used only for CroPL notifications).