I have a few questions regarding the "MIT License" that the Rails framework uses.
1) The link on the web page (at the bottom of http://www.rubyonrails.com/) points to a page (The MIT License | Open Source Initiative) that has a "generic" license template - i.e., the copyright holder info reads as follows : "Copyright (c) <year> <copyright holders>". Is there an official copy of the license for Rails maintained somewhere?
2) It is not clear to me that derived works (i.e., projects that use, but aren't a part of, an unmodified Rails distribution) may be distributed in a restricted manner - by this I mean, "sold under a license that restricts the licensee from further distribution of the derived work". Can I assume that the phrase, "this software", as used in the license, refers to the Rails framework alone, and not to derivative works building "on top" of the framework? What bothers me is the condition "The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software." I have no problem allowing anybody to further distribute Rails, but I would NOT want them to do likewise with my app.
3) Would I need to package and deploy the framework separately from the app in order to clearly delineate the two? (The intent would be to separate the two so that they may be distributed under separate licenses.)
4) How have other organizations / developers dealt with licensing and distribution of Rails apps?
Thanks in advance for any comments and suggestions. - Mike
