Emil Zegers wrote:
Just heard the info on 52 Degrees North website will not be available
before july 2007 so I was a bit too enthusiastic.
Oh, its up again. See, right on the first page it says:
We host a collection of Java based web services implementations. Our products
are published solely under the GNU General Public License (GPL) , but are also
available – via a dual licensing model – to commercial users.
In my opinion as Free Software business advocate this message contains two semantic errors.
1. The word "solely" means exclusively, singly, only. No buts there.
2. The wording conveys that to make commercial use of the software the "dual licensing model" has to be chosen. This is not true as the GPL explicitly allows commercial use.
This ambiguity is inherent to many aspects of 52N.
Wait ... I just see that the site is under construction again:
http://52north.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=38&Itemid=127
--- These pages are currently under construction. The information you find may be incomplete. Please find our product downloads at the respective Communities category. Thank you!---
So lets wait and see what happens, it is good to have development.
Regards, Arnulf.
I hope things will work out with ILWIS going Open Source because ILWIS
has much to offer.
Regards,
Emil
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Arnulf Christl
Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2007 10:54 AM
To: OSGeo Discussions
Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Fwd: [Free-gis] ILWIS to become freeware
Emil Zegers wrote:
Hello list,
>From a contact at ITC I've heard that ILWIS will become open source
under the GPL license.
Hello,
that is good to hear!
More info is available on the 52 Degrees North website
http://www.52north.org/
Emil Zegers
FYI - there has been some discussion in the past that 52N is actually
not an Open Source Project but registered as a for profit company in
Germany. The website proposes some <judgmental> dubious </judgmental>
ideas about licensing attesting a pretty closed shop mentality regarding
governance. Currently the web site is down so it is difficult to find
out more.
The sections in the web site regarding double licensing as GPL and xxx?,
governance, CLA, etc. have been changed a dozen times in the past year,
they are still finding out themselves. They have repeatedly signaled
interest in associating more with OSGeo and also appeared at last years
Intergeo OSGeo's Open Source Park (I still owe a report). This was
followed by a flame on the German mailing list when it became public
that ESRI USA is shareholder of 52N. One of the other shareholders of
52N is conterra. As of summer 2006 ESRI Germany is major shareholder of
conterra. If I was paranoid I would see ESRI taking over Open Source
(whatever that would mean).
When I was talking to an ESRI representative (it says "Spatial Data
Infrastructure Global Manager" on the bcard) and she was very interested
in what they should or could do with 52N now. They simply do not know
and want to learn. Maybe it is just that. I don't know.
One of the few things that I do know is some of the people working in
52N projects - and they are very normal people doing good work. It is
just not transparent at all what the plans for, with and around 52N are.
As it is a business and not an Open Source project I see no way that
this could change.
Best regards,
Arnulf.
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Sajith VK
Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2007 4:46 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [OSGeo-Discuss] Fwd: [Free-gis] ILWIS to become freeware
Hello all,
ILWIS, a popular GIS developed by the International Institute for
Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), The Netherlands,
is
to be made freeware from July 1st, 2007.
It may be good if we can persuade them to release it under GPL, or
any other Free software License. I think OSGeo is the right group to
communicate with ITC people and persuade them to release it as
a free software...
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