Licensing Concerns

[nothingismagick]

I just reviewed the License Terms for downloading the evergreen installer at https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/webview2/ and am struggling with several implications and apparent omissions.

First of all, from the perspective of open source library developers like at Tauri, this licensing seems to make little sense. Agreeing to the license means that such projects would be forcing every library consumer (developer) to agree to these terms. This stifles open source innovation and might actually even conflict with MIT/Apache-2 licensing.

Solution: Offer a redistribution clause and consider how downstream consumers can confirm agreement.

Next, this is troubling because the language is either unclear or needlessly draconian:

4.    SCOPE OF LICENSE. The software is licensed, not sold. 
Microsoft reserves all other rights. Unless applicable law gives you 
more rights despite this limitation, you will not (and have no right to):

d)   use the software for commercial, non-profit, or revenue-generating activities;

So who is webview2 even for? Hobby projects? This clause seems to preempt any usage whatsoever...

Solution: If you mean that the licensing scheme should prevent people from repackaging webview2 as e.g. super-awesome-webview and selling it, then this clause needs clarification. Otherwise drop it.

And the real elephant in the room is ffmpeg licensing: https://ffmpeg.org/legal.html
There is no statement of lgpl compliance in accordance with ffmpeg's terms, and some organisations (like the Eclipse Foundation) will need this verification.

Solution: Since WebView redistributes Chromium, all Chromium open-source licenses (and any others like widevine) should be exposed in this license agreement. Furthermore, explicitly mention FFMPEG compilation flags used for Chromium, or provide a reference.

Pinging @kemitchell in case he wants to weigh in here.

Edit: Here is how you can determine what ffmpeg is used in (an admittedly out of date) Electron.

[nothingismagick]

Is the EULA currently being worked on? Because it seems either I did a terrible job of reading it yesterday, or there is now a semi-decent section regarding distribution, which resolves my first comment about distribution (although the "spyware clause" does bother me and will be the subject of another issue).

That said, I inspected the license "credits.html" from Edge that the installer links to, and it is NOT clear how you are building FFMPEG, which seems to me to be a clear licensing violation. (It appears to be copypasta from what could theoretically be built, and although I "think" its probably an LGPL distribution, I have no way of knowing that without dissecting and reversing the package.)

Finally from an Academic standpoint, I would prefer not to have to install software before I know what licenses I am agreeing to, as is the case here. But that is probably a much longer discussion.

Anyway, here is the credits file from a current Edge install: Credits.html.zip

[jschroedl]

We too are concerned about the licensing of this control. I certainly hope that the EULA is being revised!

I just downloaded the Evergreen WebView2 Installer again (88.0.705.63) and the License presented there looks the same to me. It still has the disheartening clause 4.d. as well as the mention of Telemetry (3.a) and SmartScreen (3.b).

d) use the software for commercial, non-profit, or revenue-generating activities;

What makes you think things have improved?

[nothingismagick]

Either on my first read I missed the section 2 regarding Distribution, or it has been added. I prefer to think the former, and apologize in retrospect.

However, 4d has NOT been revised at all.

[jschroedl]

FWIW, I did get guidance in #834 re: disabling SmartScreen so that we would not need that verbiage. However, the SmartScreen test page still goes bonkers with warnings so the guidance there does not work or the disabling is incomplete within the control.

Update: disabling SmartScreen does work. I had set a Source= in my XAML which apparently causes some initialization before the args are processed to disable it. See #834 for details.

[liminzhu]

Thanks for reporting this folks. We are looking into this internally with our license folks and will reply back here with more information.

[m-bergstrom]

It may not be ideal, but for what it's worth, the license for the Fixed Version doesn't include the prohibition against using it for commercial, non-profit, or revenue-generating activities.

[adminerator]

Microsoft recommends the evergreen model for "most developers"(https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/webview2/concepts/distribution).

If "most developers" are not using this for "commercial, non-profit, or revenue-generating activities;" then what in the world are they doing?

[liminzhu]

That's a remnant clause from our Preview days when we didn't want folks to ship anything in production. Sorry about that! We're working with our license folks to remove that and you should see update on the download site soon.

[nothingismagick]

Ok, paragraph 4d is one concern, but we still need to be able to redistribute. I am still quite worried about open source compliance because then e.g. Tauri will be forced to accept license terms that we cannot legally accept for consumers of our library - i.e. other devs.

Also, please notify us @liminzhu when that update is available and consider uploading a copy of it here in this issue.

[nothingismagick]

I hate to say this, but now we are now REALLY in a pickle. As of this moment, 8am CET, March 10th, 2021 - Section 4 paragraph D of the Evergreen license still has not been altered, which legally (and literally) prevents anyone from doing anything with WebView2.

Why should you care? Well, because yesterday EdgeHTML (aka Edge Desktop Legacy) was retired.
https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2021/03/09/microsoft-edge-legacy-end-of-support/

This means that right now, there is no viable webview for windows on any venue on this planet.

Now, the light at the end of the tunnel is apparently planned for April 13th, 2021 - when WebView2 gets shipped to all Windows devices... Hope we have license clarity by then!

Current Evergreen License

MICROSOFT SOFTWARE LICENSE TERMS MICROSOFT EDGE WEBVIEW2 RUNTIME IF YOU LIVE IN (OR ARE A BUSINESS WITH A PRINCIPAL PLACE OF BUSINESS IN) THE UNITED STATES, PLEASE READ THE “BINDING ARBITRATION AND CLASS ACTION WAIVER” SECTION BELOW. IT AFFECTS HOW DISPUTES ARE RESOLVED. These license terms are an agreement between you and Microsoft Corporation (or one of its affiliates). They apply to the software named above and any Microsoft services or software updates (except to the extent such services or updates are accompanied by new or additional terms, in which case those different terms apply prospectively and do not alter your or Microsoft’s rights relating to pre-updated software or services). IF YOU COMPLY WITH THESE LICENSE TERMS, YOU HAVE THE RIGHTS BELOW. BY USING THE SOFTWARE, YOU ACCEPT THESE TERMS. 1. INSTALLATION AND USE RIGHTS. a) General. You may install and use any number of copies of the software to develop and test your applications. b) Included Microsoft Applications. The software may include other Microsoft applications. These license terms apply to those included applications, if any, unless other license terms are provided with the other Microsoft applications. c) Third Party Components. The software may include third party components with separate legal notices or governed by other agreements, as may be described in the ThirdPartyNotices file(s) accompanying the software. 2. DISTRIBUTABLE CODE. a) Distribution Rights. i. You may copy and distribute the object code of the software; and ii. You may permit distributors of your applications to copy and distribute any of this distributable code you elect to distribute with your applications. b) Distribution Requirements. For any code you distribute, you must: i. add significant primary functionality to it in your applications; ii. require distributors and external end users to agree to terms that protect it and Microsoft at least as much as this agreement, including providing notice to end users as required in Section 9 below iii. You must acquire all code, including any code obtained from a Microsoft URL, directly from Microsoft, including a Microsoft download site; and iv. indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Microsoft from any claims, including attorneys’ fees, related to the distribution or use of your applications, except to the extent that any claim is based solely on the unmodified distributable code. c) Distribution Restrictions. You may not: i. use Microsoft’s trademarks or trade dress in your application in any way that suggests your application comes from or is endorsed by Microsoft; or ii. modify or distribute the source code of any distributable code so that any part of it becomes subject to any license that requires that the distributable code, any other part of the software, or any of Microsoft’s other intellectual property be disclosed or distributed in source code form, or that others have the right to modify it; or iii. provide any Microsoft download sites or shortcuts that provides access to this software to a third party. 3. DATA. a) Data Collection. The software may collect information about you and your end users’ use of the software, and send that to Microsoft. Microsoft may use this information to provide services and improve our products and services. See Section 9 below for end user notice requirements. There are also some features in the software that may enable you to collect data from users of your applications. If you use these features to enable data collection in your applications, you must comply with applicable law, including providing appropriate notices to users of your applications. You can learn more about data collection and use in the help documentation and the privacy statement at https://aka.ms/privacy. Your use of the software operates as your consent to these practices. b) Microsoft Defender SmartScreen. Microsoft Defender SmartScreen (“SmartScreen”) is enabled by default. You can learn more about SmartScreen in the Microsoft Edge Privacy Whitepaper at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/privacy-whitepaper#smartscreen. If you do not disable SmartScreen, you must provide notice to your end users as required by Section 9 below. c) Processing of Personal Data. To the extent Microsoft is a processor or subprocessor of personal data in connection with the software, Microsoft makes the commitments in the European Union General Data Protection Regulation Terms of the Online Services Terms to all customers effective May 25, 2018, at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/gdpr. 4. SCOPE OF LICENSE. The software is licensed, not sold. Microsoft reserves all other rights. Unless applicable law gives you more rights despite this limitation, you will not (and have no right to): a) work around any technical limitations in the software that only allow you to use it in certain ways; b) reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble the software, or otherwise attempt to derive the source code for the software, except and to the extent required by third party licensing terms governing use of certain open source components that may be included in the software; c) remove, minimize, block, or modify any notices of Microsoft or its suppliers in the software; d) use the software for commercial, non-profit, or revenue-generating activities; e) use the software in any way that is against the law or to create or propagate malware; or f) share, publish, distribute, or lease the software, provide the software as a stand-alone offering for others to use, or transfer the software or this agreement to any third party. 5. VIDEO CODECS. THIS PRODUCT IS LICENSED UNDER THE AVC, THE VC-1, AND THE MPEG-4 PART 2 VISUAL PATENT PORTFOLIO LICENSES FOR THE PERSONAL AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE OF A CONSUMER TO (i) ENCODE VIDEO IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE ABOVE STANDARDS (“VIDEO STANDARDS”) OR (ii) DECODE AVC, VC-1, AND MPEG-4 PART 2 VIDEO THAT WAS ENCODED BY A CONSUMER ENGAGED IN A PERSONAL AND NON-COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY OR WAS OBTAINED FROM A VIDEO PROVIDER LICENSED TO PROVIDE SUCH VIDEO. NO LICENSE IS GRANTED OR SHALL BE IMPLIED FOR ANY OTHER USE. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM MPEG LA, L.L.C. SEE https://aka.ms/mpegla. 6. EXPORT RESTRICTIONS. You must comply with all domestic and international export laws and regulations that apply to the software, which include restrictions on destinations, end users, and end use. For further information on export restrictions, visit https://aka.ms/exporting. 7. SUPPORT SERVICES. Microsoft is not obligated under this agreement to provide any support services for the software. 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If you acquired the software in the United States or Canada, the laws of the state or province where you live (or, if a business, where your principal place of business is located) govern the interpretation of this agreement, claims for its breach, and all other claims (including consumer protection, unfair competition, and tort claims), regardless of conflict of laws principles, except that the FAA governs everything related to arbitration. If you acquired the software in any other country, its laws apply, except that the FAA governs everything related to arbitration. If U.S. federal jurisdiction exists, you and Microsoft consent to exclusive jurisdiction and venue in the federal court in King County, Washington for all disputes heard in court (excluding arbitration). If not, you and Microsoft consent to exclusive jurisdiction and venue in the Superior Court of King County, Washington for all disputes heard in court (excluding arbitration). 13. CONSUMER RIGHTS; REGIONAL VARIATIONS. 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EDIT: modified date to be April 13, not April 10.

[GaNacereddine]

@nothingismagick can you link to the April 10th article?

[nothingismagick]

@nothingismagick can you link to the April 10th article?

This is mentioned in the edge-legacy-end-of-support article.

EDIT: Sry - it is slated for April 13th, not April 10th.

[nothingismagick]

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/new-microsoft-edge-to-replace-microsoft-edge-legacy-with-april-s/ba-p/2114224

[liminzhu]

Sorry we should have this updated soon. Licensing update has to go through lawyers, then localization, then the website folks have to integrate etc. so it could take a while. Right now we already have localized version just waiting on the website to be refreshed.

[liminzhu]

Update - the license is updated and the below clause is removed.

d) use the software for commercial, non-profit, or revenue-generating activities;

[ngoubier]

Hi @liminzhu
The clause 4e) seems a bit restrictive also.
Can you give us more explantations ?

Thanks

4. SCOPE OF LICENSE. The software is licensed, not sold. Microsoft reserves all other rights. Unless applicable law gives you more rights despite this limitation, you will not (and have no right to): ... e) **share, publish, distribute**, or lease the software, provide the software as a stand-alone offering for others to use, or transfer the software or this agreement to any third party.

[wyrdfish]

The article above concerns removing old edge and replacing with new edge on windows 10 machines only.
Is the WebView2 component shipped with edge, I thought it was a completely separate download that we will still need to distribute.

Also what about the issue with ffmpeg licensing, has that been addressed?

[nothingismagick]

Also what about the issue with ffmpeg licensing, has that been addressed?

@wyrdfish - to my knowledge no concern has been given to the very real FFMPEG licensing issues.

[liminzhu]

To my knowledge this is covered by added open source disclosure in the license. You can find relevant source code for Edge (which WV is built on top of) on https://thirdpartysource.microsoft.com. The runtime also comes with a show_third_party_software_licenses.bat file which shows all the license.

This software incorporates material from third parties. Microsoft makes certain open source code available at https://thirdpartysource.microsoft.com, or you may send a check or money order for US $5.00, including the product name, the open source component, and version number, to:

Source Code Compliance Team
Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052
USA

Notwithstanding any other terms, you may reverse engineer this software to the extent required to debug changes to any libraries licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License.

[liminzhu]

The WebView2 runtime builds from the same Edge codebase. You can find the source by searching for edge.

[nothingismagick]

OK, thankyou, sorry for being dense. So now while my 3.6 GB file is downloading, I can return to one of my questions about ffmpeg. Can you prove to me that you have compiled it in accordance with LGPL, or is it GPL-3 licensed?

[liminzhu]

Hi @nothingismagick . Sorry I was working with legal/license folks on this for the past few days. I’ve confirmed that we build FFMPEG to be licensed under LGPL. The FFmpeg source files used in Edge are listed at “src/third_party/ffmpeg/ms_ffmpeg_generated.gni".

[stefan1000]

Since FFMPEG is under LGPL there should be a way to replace it with a custom version. Just downloaded the src archive, but did not find any build instructions to build msedge.dll.

[dimball]

Sorry for the cross post, but this question fits this topic too..

I have a question about the use of WebView2 Runtime for a commercial application.

Under the video codec section, it also mentions that the codecs being used are for non-commercial and personal use only. Does this mean that the whole license to use Webview2 runtime is for personal/non commercial use only?

This clause suggests that just having the codec bundled with the webview2 runtime installer, and even if you do not even make use of videos encoded/decoded in the webapp, you are inherently using it anyway as it is part of the application. Could someone clear up this?

Are we allowed to use webview2 runtime in a commercial setting (with the use of video playback in the Edge/chromium browser with h264 videos)?

[reemrizzk]

Hello, did you figure out whether or not WebView2 can be used in a commercial application? Because I need to know

[novac42]

Hi @reemrizzk yes you can. The license has been updated. Right now it says:

SCOPE OF LICENSE. The software is licensed, not sold. Microsoft reserves all other rights. Unless applicable law gives you more rights despite this limitation, you will not (and have no right to):
a) work around any technical limitations in the software that only allow you to use it in certain ways;

b) reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble the software, or otherwise attempt to derive the source code for the software, except and to the extent required by third party licensing terms governing use of certain open source components that may be included in the software;

c) remove, minimize, block, or modify any notices of Microsoft or its suppliers in the software;

d) use the software in any way that is against the law or to create or propagate malware; or

e) share, publish, distribute, or lease the software, provide the software as a stand-alone offering for others to use, or transfer the software or this agreement to any third party.

[tedyyu]

just want to add a reference for people to save time of checking exact license terms.
There is no direct link, but a pop up after clicking the Download button.

To view the license, go to [Download the WebView2 Runtime](https://developer.microsoft.com/microsoft-edge/webview2/#download-section), where clicking any of the download buttons, such as Get the Link, Download, or x64, shows the license in a dialog.