[gl2ps] GL2PS Licensing Clarification

[Christophe Geuzaine]

Mike Marshall wrote:

> Hello,
> 
>  
> 
> I work for a company, GeoDigm, about to release software to our users 
> (dental professionals) that uses a compiled DLL version of the GL2PS 
> library.  After wading through the GNU and GL2PS licensing documents, 
> I’m still unclear as to what we need to include in our software and 
> documentation to be compliant.
> 
>  
> 
> We do not currently charge our users for our software.  We have not 
> modified the GL2PS library in any way and our users are not software 
> developers.  Does a copyright notice in our GUI suffice?  If so, how 
> should it appear?  Do we need to distribute GL2PS source code given our 
> circumstances?
> 

Dear Mike - You can choose either the standard GNU LGPL or the (less 
restrictive) GL2PS license:

- if you choose the GNU LGPL, you have to make the source code of GL2PS 
available according to section 4 of that license;

- but since you don't plan to distribute a *modified* version of the 
library, it might be more convenient for you to use the GL2PS license, 
which basically allows you to do whatever you want with GL2PS (you don't 
have to distribute the sources, and you could even link it statically 
into your code).

In addition to the copyright notice in your GUI, you have to include the 
copyright notice and the permission notice in your documentation. This 
is basically so that your users know where the GL2PS code came from, and 
that they have the right to use it themselves under the same conditions.

Best,

Christophe

-- 
Christophe Geuzaine
Applied and Computational Mathematics, Caltech
geuzaine at acm.caltech.edu - http://geuz.org