Antwort: [gdal-dev] Problems with libecwj2-ms.dll

[Frank Warmerdam]

umn-ms at hydrotec.de wrote:
> 
>  > Well, obviously I need a "libecwj2.lib".
>  > But I'm still confused, where/how to get this.
>  > Do I have to compile the ECW-SDK on my own?
> 
> Finally I succeed.
> 
> I did compile the ECW-SDK.
> And for this one I needed "Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 
> 2003 R2" ...
> 
> I don't know about the legal issues. Would it be possible to distribute 
> libecwj2.lib
> in http://download.osgeo.org/gdal/win32/1.5/gdalwin32ecw150.zip?
> 
> Ain't easy
> Benedikt

Benedikt,

I'm quite leery of distributing ecw sdk libraries under the auspices of
OSGeo.  In order to keep things legally legitimate I believe it is best
for users of the ECW SDK to get it from ERMapper/Leica/Erdas directly, and
to agree to their click through license.

If I agree to their click through license, then upload it to
download.osgeo.org for distributions, and someone who grabs it violates
the license it would be on my head (at least to some extent) since I made
no reasonable effort to get them to agree to the requirements that I am
bound to enforce.

I have spoken to folks at ERMapper/Leica/Erdas about this recently, and they
are reviewing licensing terms, and have expressed a willingness to help
vette techniques for including ECW support in OSGeo4W.  But our basic
conclusion in that discussion was that for folks building ECW support into
GDAL themselves, they really ought to be going to ERMapper/Leica/Erdas for
the SDK so they are the one directly bound by the click-through.

Doesn't all this make real open source look so much more pleasant!

Best regards,
-- 
---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGeo, http://osgeo.org