Licensing Q&A
What is GroundWork Monitor Professional?
GroundWork Monitor Professional is an open source-based solution for accurately monitoring and managing an organization's IT infrastructure. GroundWork Monitor Professional queries applications, network equipment, servers and other components to measure availability and performance, and communicates these system metrics via a browser-based interface. GroundWork Monitor Professional is available as an affordable, annual subscription that includes configuration assistance, updates and support.
What licenses are associated with GroundWork Monitor Professional?
GroundWork Monitor Professional includes over seventy different software components, including open source software. We keep track of all licenses and provide proper attribution. First, a list of the open source components used in GroundWork Monitor Professional is published on our web site. Second, we publish our own license terms that govern the GroundWork proprietary components. Lastly, we analyze a subscriber's specific requirements to determine whether any proprietary third-party software is required, typically limited to application monitoring functionality. A subscriber's right to use any proprietary third-party software is covered by the GroundWork Monitor Professional Subscription Agreement and the fee the Subscriber pays us.
We track our use of open source projects during product development. Prior to release, we also scan our code base using the IP Detector tool from Palamida. These processes and policies provide us with a clear understanding and accounting of the open source components used in all our product releases, including GroundWork Monitor Professional.
What is GroundWork's business model?
GroundWork Monitor Professional is licensed on an annual subscription basis. A subscription provides updates to the software package, access to our customer support site and to our support personnel either through telephone or email, during the term of the subscription. We promise to provide professional resolution to problems within the response times noted within our subscription agreement with our customers. Additional information regarding our support services may be found within our support terms. Customers who wish to purchase standard or custom installation for GroundWork Monitor Professional can contact our professional services organization.
What happens at the end of my GroundWork Monitor Professional subscription?
At the end of your subscription term, unless you renew for another term at our prevailing renewal rate, you will no longer be provided access to our support services, software updates and product enhancements but will typically be free to continue to use GroundWork Monitor Professional.
What proprietary features are included in GroundWork Monitor Professional?
Proprietary features in GroundWork Monitor Professional include configuration build scripts, reports, graphs and related documentation.
GroundWork use a commercial license for all of its proprietary property?
No. Some of the GroundWork proprietary property included in GroundWork Monitor Professional is licensed under the terms of our Subscription Agreement. Other GroundWork proprietary property is simply distributed under the GPL. For instance, GroundWork Monitor Professional Architect (Monarch), GroundWork Status Viewer and GroundWork Foundation are all licensed under the GPL version 2.
Doesn't mixing open source and proprietary products violate the GPL?
No. We are not mixing any software covered by a copyleft license with proprietary source or binary code to create a single application, nor are we attempting to commercially license anything derived from any copyleft covered software. With GroundWork Monitor Professional, we simply include unmodified GPL and open source licensed software on the same CD or download as our proprietary property. All source code is delivered with GroundWork Monitor Professional along with all copyright and license attributions required by the respective open source licenses.
What am I allowed to do with code that is provided under a typical GroundWork Monitor Professional Subscription?
You are allowed to use GroundWork Monitor Professional for internal IT management purposes and not for re-distribution, hosted or managed services. If your use of GroundWork Monitor Professional is for your internal purposes and not for distribution, you are allowed to modify the software.
I've heard GroundWork Monitor Professional described as a 'collective work'. What does that mean?
GroundWork Monitor Professional is a collection of software on a CD or download, some of which belongs to GroundWork and some of which is provided by third parties. The collection as a whole is copyrighted along with the underlying components that were developed by GroundWork. We apply the GroundWork trademark so that you can be assured of GroundWork Monitor Professional's quality and origin. No one else can provide you with this same collection or assurance without our express permission.
Is GroundWork Monitor Professional trademarked?
Yes. We have registered GroundWork Monitor Professional in the United States. References to GroundWork Monitor Professional are allowed only with our express permission and must include the legend "GroundWork Monitor Professional is a trademark of GroundWork Open Source Solutions, Inc. and is used by permission only." We do not claim rights in any trademarks of third parties. All such marks are the properties of their respective owners.
Does GroundWork enforce its copyrights and trademarks?
Yes. Just as we respect the copyrights and trademarks of other parties, we expect everyone to respect our trademarks and copyrights as well.
May I copy the GroundWork Monitor Professional CD and give it away, or use it to deploy GroundWork Monitor Professional on someone else's network?
No. You may not distribute GroundWork Monitor Professional outside of your organization. You may distribute the individual components that are covered by open source licenses, but not the entire collection of work, nor the proprietary software components that are provided by GroundWork and governed by the terms of the Subscription Agreement.
Does GroundWork provide a warranty for GroundWork Monitor Professional?
Yes. A subscription to GroundWork Monitor Professional includes a thirty-day warranty that GroundWork Monitor Professional will perform substantially in accordance with the documentation we provide. In the event that the software does not perform substantially in accordance with the documentation, GroundWork will refund the subscription fees paid for the current term.
Does GroundWork offer indemnification for GroundWork Monitor Professional?
Yes. We provide indemnification and damage coverage for GroundWork proprietary property to subscribers at no extra cost. Open source software delivered with GroundWork Monitor Professional is provided under the terms of the respective open source license, which typically require re-distribution "as is", with no warranty or indemnification, express or implied.
Can we resell GroundWork Monitor Professional without a license from GroundWork?
No. If you wish to distribute GroundWork Monitor Professional, please contact our sales department, who can follow up with you to discuss potential distribution arrangements.
What if we notice an incorrect attribute or open source license associated with an open source project?
Please email us to let us know at [email protected]. While we have made our best effort in determining who owns what code and the associated license, there may be cases where there was an assignment of the code or there was a change in the open source license being used for the particular project.
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