[Qgis-psc] Proposal that QGIS.ORG will become a member of the OpenDesign Alliance

[Andreas Neumann]

Hi Martin,

The use and distribution of the Teigha library is really restricted to 
the organization that is a member. It would probably mean that QGIS.ORG 
would have to provide the binaries of those versions that should include 
CAD import support. We can assign several developers as part of QGIS.ORG 
who can have access to Teigha and compile the versions. As an example, 
you, Martin, could have access as QGIS.ORG dev, but not as Lutra dev who 
wants to create its own Lutra QGIS version.

We would have to become a corporate member, if we would want the rights 
for affiliated organizations to use/distribute the Teigha libraries as 
well. See https://www.opendesign.com/Corporate - this would be much more 
expensive.

The corporate member level would have been the solution if OSGEO would 
become a member, and QGIS would be an affilliate. But I doubt that OSGEO 
wants/can provide all that money - what do you think, Jeff?

Andreas

On 15.12.2015 16:46, Martin Dobias wrote:
> Hi Andreas
>
> Do you know if the QGIS.ORG membership would apply also for
> third-party packages? To my knowledge, only the Windows standalone
> package is produced and distributed directly by QGIS.ORG. Other
> packages are created and distributed by third parties:
> - osgeo4w - by OSGeo
> - linux packages - by Debian, Fedora, ...
> - os x - by KyngChaos
>
> Also, if I wanted to compile QGIS with Teigha library myself and
> distribute it to someone else, would I be allowed to do it within
> QGIS.ORG membership?
>
> Regards
> Martin
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 15, 2015 at 3:37 PM, Andreas Neumann <a.neumann at carto.net> wrote:
>> Hi QGIS.ORG board,
>>
>> As you may be aware, Jürgen I worked on a proposal to allow import of CAD
>> data into QGIS. Jürgen provided an offer.
>>
>> We plan to use the Teigha library of the OpenDesign Alliance (ODA)
>> (https://www.opendesign.com/the_oda_platform/Teigha). It isn't GPL
>> compatible and it requires a membership fee with annual renewal.
>>
>> I was investigating whether OSGEO could become a member - this is
>> theoretically possible, but it would require a higher and more expensive
>> membership level than as if QGIS.ORG would become a member. I would thus
>> propose that QGIS.ORG becomes a sustaining member of the ODA, which would
>> allow to distribute binaries of the Teigha library for all of our supported
>> platforms, along with the QGIS binaries.$
>>
>> Financially, the sustaining membership level would mean US $5000.- in the
>> first year and US $3000.- annual renewal in the subsequent years. I would
>> propose that QGIS.ORG would pay this membership fees from the QGIS.ORG funds
>> - and if you agree - will include it into our 2016 budget. See
>> https://www.opendesign.com/Sustaining
>>
>> I will propose to make this decision dependent on our ability to raise the
>> 32k Euros required to pay Jürgen for the QGIS-side development. So far I
>> only have confirmations for about 10k Euros. Still some work to raise the
>> full amount.
>>
>> Do you have any questions regarding this proposal?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Andreas
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