RFduino and Closed Source Agreements

[Anne van Rossum]

This is something for the legal department.

You had some questions here about the RFduino before. This question is about legal obligations Nordic supposedly imposed on the guys at Digital RF.

Is it true that:

I am flabbergasted by the RFduino guys namely, so I would like to ask straight from the source, here.

[Ole Morten]

This is very hard to comment on, since we don't really know what source has gone into these tools. In general, all code from our SDK is not allowed redistributed under an open source license, so if RFDuino's tools use those in some way, there could be limitations. You can read the full license that covers the SDK here if you're interested.

[Anne van Rossum]

Hi Ole, Yes, that license text makes sense. It doesn't state that calling header files written by Nordic makes the calling code in some way contagiously proprietary as well.

It seems the RFduino people use it as an excuse. However, I don't understand why. IMHO they earn more money if there are more ways in which their hardware solution can be used. Keeping the Arduino bootloader proprietary and not even distribute it in binary form, seems counterproductive.

In other words, if there is business logic or legal issues involved, I don't understand it. :-) It feels like a mistake or miscommunication, which I would like to repair. :-)

[Ole Morten]

No, code that's just calling our functions should be fine for distribution under any license the author of the calling code sees fit, as long as the actual SDK files are not included.

As far as I can see, the original question here have been answered, and I'd therefore be happy if you could accept my answer to clear up the question. :-)

[Anne van Rossum]

My interpretation of your answer is "no" and "no". The question is answered. :-)