PanoTools NG:
Panorama Tools License
hd_de_2000 2007-Aug-05 10:14:20
The Panorama Tools library and PTViewer are published under
the GNU license which states that any piece of software using
it must also be published under this license. Apparently,
several programmers violate this requirement. I personally
have not checked this but I frequently get emails from
users of such programs. What I personally often see when
browsing the internet are rip-offs of PTViewer which can
be easily identified.
I encourage anyone who wishes to start a commercial
project based on PanoTools, but this can and should be done
within the boundaries of the license, which btw is one of
the most generous licenses thinkable. Violating the
license is not just cheating me (which is no problem to
be discussed on this list), but it also endangers the
violators business: According to the license text any
software which is partially GNU-licensed is automatically
fully GNU-licensed. The user can request all sources
from the vendor. What if he assumes (as stated in the license),
that he can legally make and distribute copies
of the software, ruining the violators business?
The software vendor will have a hard time defending
a copyright which he legally does not own.
Anyway, to solve this problem, and after some discussions
at the IVRPA-conference in Berkeley, I am planning to change the
license for the PanoTools library (the files "pano12.lib" and
"pano12.dll" apparently used by many programs) to the
GNU-library license, which means that programmers can link
to it without revealing their own code. They still must
make the library code (and all changes they made to it) accessible.
I am going to publish the license text at my website in the
next weeks,and the change will be in effect from that day
on (not retroactive).I will not change the PTViewer license.
Regards
Helmut Dersch
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