[OSGeo-Discuss] Proposal: OSGeo Cartographic Library

[Bruno Lowagie]

Paolo Cavallini wrote:
> So the question is: is there a free (as speech) and Open Source full
> blown PDF viewer?
> I think OSGeo is about open source software.

I'm a F/OSS developer, so I'm going to use my standard answer:
"What's keeping you from adding OCG support to Evince?" *LOL*

My own library iText is 'free' as in 'free beer'; although it is
available under the MPL/LGPL it's supposed to be free as in 'free
speech' too, but I don't agree with the FSF argument that Licensed
Software (any license: GPL, LGPL, MPL,...) is free as in 'free speech'.
If it were, companies using iText wouldn't keep on harassing me about
the license (and about the fact that they don't like the MPL/LGPL).
If iText were really Free, they wouldn't have any reason for not
using iText.

I interpret the 'Free' in 'Free Software' as 'Free to pay for value'
(Google for 'Voluntary Economies'). But than again: companies like
Google for instance use iText in many different project but they've
never paid anything for using it.

That's why when people lecture me about 'Free Software' annoy me:
most of them USE F/OSS for free (as in Free Beer), but the number
of people CONTRIBUTING (*) source or PAYING for value is very limited.

(*) By the way: this is the list of people who contributed code to
the iText project: http://www.1t3xt.com/about/acknowledgments/index.php

br,
Bruno