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 16:10:37 GMT
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Viewed:
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1562 times
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"Frank Filz" <ffilz@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:3A36D1B3.4287@mindspring.com...
>
> 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).
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 L3P. They are very different in how they opperate, and
should be treated differently for licensing of the part library. L3P uses
the underlying definition of the individual parts in its POV definitions.
Therefor it is almost entirely dependent on the artistic work of part
authors, and rightly includes author information in its part definitions.
L2P, on the other hand, looks at the location and orientation of a part in
the model file, but uses its own part library to define each element
(which is why L2P can't handle all the parts in the LCAD library.) The
part definitions are the artistic work of Anton Raves (sp?) and do not
rely on the artistic work of part authors. (Actually, he may have relied
somewhat on LCAD parts in creating his library, I'm not 100% sure on
this.)
If LEGO were to make a converter for its own software, it would almost
certainly use the L2P method, and wouldn't make use of the artistic work
of part authors. Therefor it wouldn't require licensing from LCAD.
Any licensing scheme we come up with should make a clear distinction
between a use of the library which relies on the artistic work of the
authors, and one which merely can read and write LDraw format.
-John Van
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | RE: License - again
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| (...) Actually, L2P uses the LGEO library written by Lutz Uhlman. Lutz also wrote L2P and all the textures that LGEO uses. AFAIK, Anton Raves has no connection with L2P at all. It's difficult to use Anton's parts because not only the coordinate (...) (24 years ago, 13-Dec-00, to lugnet.cad.dev)
| | | Re: License - again
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| (...) It may be worth to note here that the binary format for LeoCAD falls into the former category. And as Leonardo Zide has said, James Jessiman did allow him to redistribute the transformed parts library independent from the main LDraw (...) (24 years ago, 14-Dec-00, to lugnet.cad.dev)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: License - again
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| (...) 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 (...) (24 years ago, 13-Dec-00, to lugnet.cad.dev)
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