Due to the separation of Traversal Technology and Tech Source, we have seen fit to insulate ourselves against any potential legal problems, such questions of ownership of IP. While we don't expect Tech Source to cause any problems, we cannot predict the future of Tech Source business relationships that may or may not affect us. We prefer to be cautious.
As such, we have "clean-roomed" the software model of the 3D renderer that was originally developed on Tech Source time. In short, I collected together mailing list discussions and publically available documentation and wrote a detailed ENGLISH description of the rendering pipeline; I then passed that off to my partner, Andy, who had never seen the original model. He has developed a complete replacement (written from scratch) of the model that will now become the standard for furture development of the OGP 3D renderer. While we had concerns of copyright, no patents apply, so we had no need to change any of the ideas. Therefore, you will see significant similarities between the new model and the old model. However, there is no genetic relationship between the old and new models. (If someone wants to try to verify that, please feel free to do so.) Before I publish the new code for review and regression testing, I want to straighten out the license. As you know, the whole design (RTL and everything) will eventually be released under GPL, but due to the extreme expense of chip fabrication, investors and partners will need to be sure that the technology cannot be co-opted before the investment has been recouped. I need to find a simple way to license the model so that the Verilog implementation (which may or may not be considered a derivative work) does not have to be immediately released under GPL. Below is a draft of the license I would like to apply to the model. Critique it. As soon as that is settled, I'll check the new model into SVN. // Open Graphics 3D renderer model, Mark 2 // Copyright 2005, Traversal Technology // Written by Andy Fong // This source code is licensed as follows: // (1) By default, the sole copyright owner is Traversal Technology, under a // proprietary license. Traversal may make proprietary use of this work // and any derivative works. // (2) By default, any changes submitted by community members fall under this // same license. Traversal Technology will openly publish all internally // and externally-provided modifications to this work under this same // license. Traversal Technology may opt to not publish IP that may // or may not be considered a derivative work (ie. a chip). // (3) At any time, members of the open source community, at their choosing, // are authorized to convert an instance of this work to the GPL license. // Under such circumstances, this license change must be explicitly // indicated in the GPL fork so that clause (2) is not invoked. _______________________________________________ Open-graphics mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com)
