OK, what do people thing about the below text w.r.t. the
symbol/footprint license issue? I'll let folks discuss & flame for a
few days, and then -- assuming we achieve consensus -- I can stick it
on the gEDA website if people agree it makes sense. If it's
too much mumbo-jumbo, I can also just forget it. Dan, Harry,
DJ, you'll have to do the same on
the PCB website -- if you agree with the text, of course!
Stuart
----------------------------------------------------------
A word about licensing.
All software components of gEDA/gaf, as well as PCB, are released
under the GNU Public License (GPL). However, some confusion exists
about the schematic symbols and footprints. What license do they use?
Will GPL symbols/footprints "infect" your design, thereby requiring
you to release your design to the public? If you modify the symbols or
footprints, must you release the modified versions under the GPL?
The goal of the gEDA Project is to provide an open-source EDA Suite
which may be used for commerical as well as non-commercial projects.
Our tools are aimed for use by students, educators, consultants,
hobbiests, and -- yes -- corporate engineers. We are not interested
in exerting any control over your designs, or forcing you to reveal
proprietary information contained in your designs.
Symbols and footprints are similar to the font files used in document
processing software -- they are graphical objects used to express your
ideas. We want you to retain control of your own ideas (your design),
while the gEDA Project retains a say in how you redistribute the
symbol and footprint files themselves. Our goals for the
symbols and footprints are:
* We wish to distribute the symbols and footprints under a licencing
scheme which encourages that you give back to the community if you
make changes to the symbols or footprints. The GPL ensures this.
* We wish to specifically prohibit anybody from building our
symbols or footprints into their products, and then place
restrictions on how the resulting product may be used. If you
incorporate our symbols or footprints -- whether modified or
unmodified -- into your software distribution,
then you must allow for the symbols and footprint's continued
redistribution. The GPL ensures this.
* However, we do not wish to "infect" your design, or force you to
release your proprietary design information if you use our symbols or
footprints in your design.
The Free Software Foundation has recognized a possible conflict of
the base GPL with the issue of fonts (and, by analogy, symbols &
footprints). Their solution is to use an exemption clause in the GPL
which you explicitly insert for fonts. Read it here:
http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl-faq.html#FontException
Therefore, using this as a template, all symbols and footprints
released with gEDA/gaf and PCB are covered under the GPL with the
following exeption clause:
As a special exception, if you create a design which uses this
symbol/footprint, and embed this symbol/footprint or unaltered
portions of this symbol/footprint into the design, this
symbol/footprint does not by itself cause the resulting design to be
covered by the GNU General Public License. This exception does not
however invalidate any other reasons why the design might be covered
by the GNU General Public License. If you modify this
symbol/footprint, you may extend this exception to your version of the
symbol/footprint, but you are not obligated to do so. If you do not
wish to do so, delete this exception statement from your version.
If we distribute symbols or footprints with a licence contained within
the symbol/footprint file, then the file should contain the entire GPL
along with the above text.
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