-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 14
/
LICENSE.FAQ
104 lines (85 loc) · 4.85 KB
/
LICENSE.FAQ
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
SciTech GPL License FAQ
June 2004
In order to ensure that developers are fully aware of how the GPL
license applies to SciTech developed code, we are including our GPL
license FAQ questions along with the GNU GPL license. Please fully
read and understand both the FAQ items as well as the GNU GPL before
you use our software. The body of the GNU General Public License
is included in this archive as the file LICENSE.GPL.
-----
Q. What is the difference between the GPL and commercial tools?
A. The GPL and commercial versions of our tools (such as the SciTech
SNAP SDK and SciTech MGL) are identical code-wise. The GPL versions
of our tools are licensed for development of free or Open Source Software
and include complete source code freely available under the GNU General
Public License, or GPL.
You can use the GPL versions of our tools to develop software free of
charge provided that the software you develop is released under under
the GPL license also, or a compatible license as defined by the
SciTech FOSS License Exception document (see LICENSE.EXCEPT). If you
develop commercial, closed source software, SciTech offers commercial
licenses for this purpose. Commercial customers will benefit from
professional support services and will not be restricted by the
conditions imposed by the GPL license.
-----
Q. Why do you offer both a commercial and a GPL version of your tools?
A. SciTech has put many years of effort and development into our
professional products and development tools. Some developers may not be
able to afford our tools financially, so the GPL version of our tools
allows those developers to pay for the use of those tools by making
their software available to the free software community under a license
compatible with the GPL license.
This allows our tools to be used by the largest target audience possible,
both those developing free software under various compatible licenses and
those developing closed source, proprietary products. The GPL version of
our tools also allows commercial developers interested in our tools to
evaluate them free of charge prior to beginning commercial development.
-----
Q. Can I build and design software with the GPL versions of your tools
and then release it under the BSD, Artistic or Mozilla licenses?
A. Yes. Although the GPL license is not compatible with many Open Source
licenses, we have issued a SciTech FOSS License Exception which allows
the use of our GPL covered code with any of the Free or Open Source
licenses listed in that document (see LICENSE.EXCEPT).
-----
Q. Is software based on SciTech's GPL tools really free? Does it carry
SciTech license restrictions?
A. Yes, it is really free. No, there are no special SciTech license
restrictions on free software produced using the GPL tools. In fact,
the opposite is true: The GPL licensing demands that the software
developed with the GPL SDK must be free. The receivers of the software
must have the rights to obtain the source code, change it, and
redistribute it.
-----
Q. Can I distribute applications that are dynamically linked to SciTech GPL
tools?
A. Yes, provided that your applications are released under a license
compatible with the SciTech FOSS License Exception document
(see LICENSE.EXCEPT). If you do not wish to release your application
under a license compatible with the SciTech FOSS License Exception
document, then you must license the commercial versions from SciTech.
Putting the SciTech GPL code into a library that is dynamically linked into
your application does not mean you can avoid the licensing requirements of
the GPL license.
-----
Q. Using the GPL Tools, can I make software for internal use in my
company/organization?
A. SciTech's GPL tools are not intended for such use; it is our policy that
when you are using SciTech's tools for free, you should in return contribute
to the free software community. If you cannot do that, you should get a
commercial license from SciTech.
Note that software developed with SciTech's GPL SDK must be distributed as
free/Open Source software; i.e. the receivers of the software must be free to
give it to whomever they like and must be provided with complete source code.
Internal company distribution is no exception to this rule.
-----
Q. Why doesn't SciTech distribute its SDK under the GNU Lesser General
Public License?
A. We do not use the LGPL for any of our tools as that would encourage
vendors to take from the free software community without giving anything
back. In other words, if SciTech's SDK was released under the LGPL,
commercial developers would not have to purchase the commercial versions
of our SDK in order to make commercial/proprietary software. Instead they
could just use the LGPL version, completely free of charge. SciTech would
then not get the revenue necessary for improving and extending our
products and tools, which indirectly benefits the free software community.