[GRASS5] v.in.dwg license problem

[Bernhard Reiter]

On Wed, May 14, 2003 at 01:27:23PM +0200, Markus Neteler wrote:
> On Wed, May 14, 2003 at 10:45:17PM +1200, H Bowman wrote:
> > > > Noticed that v.in.dwg from GRASS 5.1
> > > > (http://freegis.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/grass51/vector/v.in.dwg/)
> > > > uses the proprietory library opendwg.
> > > > As I believe that it also needs the GRASS libraries which
> > > > are under GNU GPL, this means that v.in.dwg has a severe license
> > > > problem.
> > 
> > see also
> > http://freegis.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/grass/src.nonGPL/
> > 
> > I suppose the worry is that if it is included in the main source
> > distribution, an over zealous packager might build it into a binary at
> > some point.
> 
> Well, for this he/she had to fix a lot of code in this directory.
> It is fairly outdated. Also, everything is clearly written in the
> local README:
> 
> "Code in this subdirectory is not free. This code is not
>  distributed under GNU General Public license."

We have to move that subdirectory away from the main GRASS 5.1 CVS.

> People can always ignore things.

No, the main message GRASS states everywhere is that
GRASS is Free Software under GNU GPL.
Developer expect this without rechecking all files in the directory.
It would be a major loss to chance that
and I can feel a great publicity disaster.

> > I'd think having it live in CVS (with a note where to look in the
> > v.in.dxf man page) should be fine- forces the user to compile it
> > themselves but doesn't hide it. ???
> 
> This is the current implementation. Interesting to read is
> http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl-faq.html#WritingFSWithNFLibs 

We can publish the v.in.dwg, 
but to be clear enough we must move it to a nonfree CVS module 
beside the regular GRASS 5.1 and place a clear warning on it: 

	This code is tainted.
	Don't ever give binaries you've build out of this code to anybody, 
	otherwise you permanently loose the right to use the GRASS libraries.

Otherwise we somehow incite people to break the license
of the GRASS libraries. 
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