[OSGeo-Discuss] GDAL and ESRI

[Mateusz Loskot]

Ravi wrote:
> ARC-GIS 9.2 uses GDAL
> 
> Need some pointers to Licensing or agreement there on. I am
> frequently asked questions on this. Example: ILWIS uses GDAL and
> became OpenGIS How come ESRI uses GDAL too, does open source support
> closed source too..

You need to learn about the basic licencing models used by FOSS and
FOSS4G. It is GPL, LGPL, BSD and MIT.

GDAL is distributed under the terms of MIT license.:

http://trac.osgeo.org/gdal/wiki/FAQGeneral#WhatlicensedoesGDALOGRuse

After you know what's the difference between these licencing terms,
you will understand how it is possible for ESRI to use GDAL.

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