[GRASSLIST:1950] Re: [GRASS5] libgrass license?

[Frank Warmerdam]

Bernhard Reiter wrote:
> My position is that if we find a subset of GRASS code
> and make is possible to interface to GRASS' dataformats
> from proprietary application, because of an LGPL libgrass or so,
> without giving away too much of GRASS appplication capabilities,
> it is a good thing.

Bernhard,

It would be desirable but I also don't want to have to duplicate
a big chunk of code.  Part of the complexity at the time was wanting
to write into a live GRASS database.  If we leave that aside and
just did read support we likely wouldn't require as much of the
"environment" machinery.

I would add that ideally a libgrass would also include vector
support, but I suspect the new vector architecture is also going
to be a pretty complex set of code to disentangle.  Perhaps I am
wrong.  Certainly if data is kept in external formats (via OGR or
PostGIS) the data can be accessable without needing recourse to
GPL'ed GRASS code.

> Frank, 
> I know that you usually route around some of the licensing problems.

Not too sure how to take that.

> This is a practical approach for the short term,
> especially when interested to get some stuff running.
> But in the long term the Free Software community
> especially in the GIS field will benefit if somebody works this out precisely.
> Similiar problems can be seen in other fields of computing.

Perhaps, but the expedient thing for me is to avoid use of GPL'ed libraries
in GDAL.

At this point, I am thinking my best contributions to GRASS would be to
actually take up maintenance of r.in.gdal again (getting rid of the bridge
stuff for instance, and fixing any other issues), implement an r.out.gdal,
and then just concentrate on GDAL/OGR improvements.  This ensures that my
work benefits GRASS (which I like) without too many license related
entanglements.

Best regards,
-- 
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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    | Geospatial Programmer for Rent