Subject:
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Re: License - again
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.cad.dev
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Date:
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Wed, 13 Dec 2000 01:32:35 GMT
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Viewed:
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1574 times
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Leonardo Zide wrote:
>
> John VanZwieten wrote:
> >
> > Good to hear more from the app. dev. side (for which I have utmost
> > respect)! What do you think about Larry P.'s idea to add a clause
> > requiring free (or nominal cost) application distribution to the
> > contributors to the parts library? ("Contributors" would have to include
> > people like Terry K. who put tons of effort into the library but (maybe)
> > haven't authored parts.)
>
> If we take that route then I assume that (L)GPL is not going to be
> used. I think we can also add a clause "other licenses can be negociated
> with the authors".
>
> I also liked the idea of requiring the source code for a conversion
> program, if the library is converted to another format.
Again, care needs to be taken here. If the program is a program which
converts the library itself, requiring it to be liberally licensed may
be reasonable. A conversion program which just converts a LDraw .DAT to
a new format which will use a different library is a different ball of
wax, we don't want to kill the possibility of converters between
commercial programs with proprietary (and potentially patented or
otherwise protected in some way preventing fan creation of the
converter) file formats and LDraw.
I'd even argue that a program which just allowed one to import the LDraw
parts library into some other program shouldn't necessarily be forced
into a liberal license. It would be nice when some hypothetical
commerical program comes out down the line that also happens to provide
a way to get a source code license to code to work with it's file
format, that a fan can create a program which could import LDraw parts
(potentially to be able to get new parts faster, or to get old parts
which the developers didn't want to do because they aren't available in
remotely recent sets). Depending on the licensing of the commercial
program, it might be impossible to release source code to such a fan
created tool. On the other hand, I would strongly support such a tool
being forced to be free (of course such a tool would be hard to cover
with the LDraw license unless the file format is protected, or the tool
used a LDraw licensed source code to process the LDraw half of the
conversion).
With some of those thoughts in mind, what the LDraw library license
should cover is distribution and inclusion of the library itself. I'm
not sure how much can be done to protect the library from being
converted (and note that a tool which renders an LDraw model into say
POV-RAY is effectively converting the library).
--
Frank Filz
-----------------------------
Work: mailto:ffilz@us.ibm.com (business only please)
Home: mailto:ffilz@mindspring.com
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: License - again
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| (...) Agreed. I meant converting the library, not converting a model created with the library. Remember, we can always add a line saying "If you need the library released under a different license, write to ask permission". (...) Yes, maybe (...) (24 years ago, 13-Dec-00, to lugnet.cad.dev)
| | | Re: License - again
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| "Frank Filz" <ffilz@mindspring.com> wrote in message news:3A36D1B3.4287@m...ing.com... (...) This is the perfect example of the line we should draw with regard to converters. There are two main tools which convert an LDraw model to POV-Ray: L2P and (...) (24 years ago, 13-Dec-00, to lugnet.cad.dev)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: License - again
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| (...) If we take that route then I assume that (L)GPL is not going to be used. I think we can also add a clause "other licenses can be negociated with the authors". I also liked the idea of requiring the source code for a conversion program, if the (...) (24 years ago, 12-Dec-00, to lugnet.cad.dev)
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