PanoTools NG:
Re: Panorama Tools License
hd_de_2000 2007-Aug-10 14:44:03
My answer to Daniel bounced from the list so I repost it here:
Hi Daniel,
On Sun, 5 Aug 2007, Daniel M German wrote:
>....
> Panotools was being used against the spirit (and perhaps the letter)
> of the GPL, and nothing was done against it. IMO, this was creating a
> bad precedent. The development of panotools has stalled ever since.
> ....
My own frustration regarding GPL-violations are due to
the abuse of the PTViewer applet. There were times when I daily
received emails from users who had spotted violators. I wrote a few
emails to the infringers but it did not stop, and I finally
gave up. What could I do? Starting a legal fight is out of the
question (a) because I have already received my lifetime share of
legal battles, and (b) because I have better things to spend my time
with.
I did not monitor the development efforts on Sourceforge,
and was not aware of the conflicts you mentioned in your
email.
On the other hand, I enjoy seeing the whole Panorama Tools
project succeed and now dominate the VR-scenary. This success
could not have been reached with open-source development alone.
We just can not provide such a user interface and user support.
However, it is rooted in the open-source project, and it will
probably fail, if the open-source part is completely
discontinued. The strength of opensource projects is
that they quickly fuel novel research results into usable
applications. Eg, many features of 5 year old PTools
are still not or only partially available in the commercial
front ends (just saw the "Nadir fixing" for flat floors
in Joosts new "PTGui", which "PTStereo" could do for arbitrary shaped
surfaces some 5 years ago, etc).
I wished there was a better relationship between the
two "camps" because of this interdependence.
>
> Helmut, do you plan to continue development of panotools?
>
I have some ideas about motion picture processing, but I
have not made plans about how much effort I will spend.
I have no plans in the sense of general improvements
and development of the existing programs.
> I'll be glad to donate to you the copyright of many of the
> improvements I have done to panotools. This includes several output
> projections, and a new parser of the .ini files.
>
Thank you, I will check the Sourceforge project.
Regards
Helmut Dersch
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