[Liblas-devel] (no subject)

[Doug_Newcomb at fws.gov]

>From: "Michael P. Gerlek" <mpg at flaxen.com>
>Subject: RE: [Liblas-devel] Open source lidar software?

>Well, it's not at all clear actually -- I heard today that the Fusion 
source
>is in fact available, but I've not found a link yet or seen the license
>terms.  I'll post if I learn more, because I've heard good things about
>Fusion and would be happy to include it in my list.

I called the developer and chatted with him about 2 years ago.  He was ( 
at the time) under contract to USDA to write/maintain the software.  It 
was my understanding that he considered the source code to be in the 
public domain. However, as you correctly point out the licensing is not 
clearly stated.  To get clear licensing information on the software would 
probably mean working with whoever writes the software development 
contract. 

>\begin{rant}
>The question of Fusion aside, I'll go out on a limb here and note that,
>based on the googling and downloading I've done on this topic, there is
>still a lot of misunderstanding in the world about what "open" means. 
Long
>before you even get into the debate about whether the GPL is good or not,
>you need to publish the source code with some sort of explicit licensing
>claim.  Having an easily-downloadable, no-cost, ready-to-install binary 
is
>great, and I use many such tools, but *please* don't imply they are "open
>source" unless you offer a download of the source code -- and a license 
--
>right along with them.  We (OSGeo-type folk) still need to keep educating
>people on this.
>\end{rant}

Agreed.

Doug


Doug Newcomb 
USFWS
Raleigh, NC
919-856-4520 ext. 14 doug_newcomb at fws.gov
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The opinions I express are my own and are not representative of the 
official policy of the U.S.Fish and Wildlife Service or Dept. of the 
Interior.   Life is too short for undocumented, proprietary data formats.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/liblas-devel/attachments/20110407/41c9c822/attachment-0001.html