Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] GDAL and ESRI

[Andrew Ross]

Hi All,

Adding to this discussion, there are a spectrum of open source licenses
measured in terms of what they allow to derivative works. At one end of the
spectrum, the GPL stipulates that if you base your software on a component
that is licensed with the GPL license *and* distribute it, that derivative
work must be licensed under the GPL license.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are licenses that are very liberal
in terms of what they allow - BSD and MIT are good examples of this. Reusing
a component licensed under the BSD or MIT license does affect a derivative
work.

In terms of the GPL, distribution is a key. If you do not distribute your
derivative work, then it does not become GPL. An example of this would be
strictly in-house use, or developing a web based service. The exception, be
aware there is a different class of the GPL, the Affero GPL that applies in
the case of web services. With this license, you do not have to redistribute
to trigger the GPL contamination - building a web service is enough to do
so.

There's a good video on what you should look out for and relative merits of
various licenses here: http://www.fosslc.org/drupal/node/523 The 3 licenses
discussed in this video are at opposite ends and roughly in the middle of
the above spectrum.

Andrew

2009/11/7 Yves Jacolin (free) yjaco...@free.fr

 Le samedi 07 novembre 2009, Ravi a écrit :
  How come ESRI uses GDAL too, does open source support closed source too.

 Hi,

 It depends the OS Licence. GDAL licence is BSD-Like  [1].

 Some other are usinng GPL-LIKe licence. This kind of licence does not allow
 closed source to user open source licence. They need to open their source
 using a GPL-Like licence [2].

 This is quiet complicated ;)

 Y.
 [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSD_licenses
 [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License
 --
 Yves Jacolin
 -
 Donner la liberté aux individus ne suffit pas, il faut aussi leur donner
 du
 pouvoir, de la puissance d'agir. M Gauchet

 Give freedom to people is not enough, we also have to give them the power
 to use this freedom, to act. M Gauchet
 -
 http://yjacolin.gloobe.org
 http://softlibre.gloobe.org
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Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Licensing

[Emmanuel Christophe]

Mateusz, note that the link you provide is referring to GPL v2. In the
latest GPL, the term to all third parties has disappeared. As
mentioned in the faq, you have to provide the source to the program's
users.

So, Ravi, you have to provide the source code of your modifications to
your client (not to everybody). As long as you do that, I don't think
that you violate the licence. You have to be aware that your client
will have the right to distribute your source code without seeking
your approval (the code is under GPL).

Emmanuel



2009/11/7 Mateusz Loskot mate...@loskot.net:
 Ravi wrote:
 Wish to know does this violate licensing. Qgis is just as an example,
 it can be Grass or Ossim or any other Open GIS as well

 Example: I love Qgis and I have added some code to Qgis as a C++
 programmer, thus giving the necessary customization for my specific
 client. I compile it and distribute the Executable, as part of my
 package deal. Does this violate any license of Qgis.

 Yes, it does.

 I recommend to read this:

 http://articles.sitepoint.com/article/public-license-explained

 Best regards,
 --
 Mateusz Loskot, http://mateusz.loskot.net
 Charter Member of OSGeo, http://osgeo.org
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