All Howard Butler wanted to do is write a GDAL driver for ArcSDE raster support. He couldn’t afford a production license of ArcSDE, but he took a look at ESRI’s EDN which is supposed to help people like him develop using ESRI Server tools. After looking at the fine print, he’s wondering if he can use it at all.
The problem is that I’m an independent developer, and I don’t have the financial resources to purchase a full ArcSDE seat (or have the ability to include it in the development of the driver, which would inflate the cost of development by nearly four times). Initially, I thought EDN had the potential to support development like this, but after reading the license, I’m not so sure.
My companies lawyers read the agreement and didn’t think any of it would constrict us, but everyone is different. Anyone from ESRI EDN (I’d ask Brian but he’s not at ESRI anymore) care to help Howard out?