[GRASS5] v.in.dwg license problem

[Bernhard Reiter]

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.

I see no viable alternative than to remove the current v.in.dwg
and work on a replacement based on a Free Software license
(compatable with GRASS' license).
DIME or dxflib might be a starting point for development.


We should remove v.in.dwg because nobody can distribute binaries
and if somebody did, this person would violate the license of GRASS
which mean he strictly would loose the right to use GRASS.

It might hurt in the moment, especially if v.in.dxf works nicely,
but if we don't pay attention to GRASS' freedom, we'll 
pay a enourmously higher bill in the long run hurting us plenty.

Another possiblity apart from using DIME, dxflib or develop
a new library would be to lobby 
the opendwg consortium http://www.opendwg.org/ to release
opendwg under a reasonable Free Software license (X11 Style or GNU
LGP come to mind). To do this successfully is probably hard.

I don't consider relicensing GRASS' core libraries under a more relaxing 
license an option. We might produce a stand alone application 
that only uses grasslibs to at least simply read and write vector files
using the proprietory opendwg libraries, but it would be a major pain
in the neck. GNU/Linux distributors and commercial service provider
will not be able to fully utilise and distribute this sort of dwg support.

A good library for DWG is the only hope of the Free Software community.

	Bernhard
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