mirror of https://github.com/CGAL/cgal
66 lines
3.0 KiB
TeX
66 lines
3.0 KiB
TeX
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\section{License Issues}
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\cgal\ is Open Source software, and consists of different parts covered by
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different licenses. In this section we explain the essence of the different
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licenses, as well as the rationale why we have chosen them.
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The fact that \cgal\ is Open Source software does not mean that users are free
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to do whatever they want with the software. Using the software means to accept
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the license, which has the status of a contract between the user and the owner
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of the \cgal\ software. A more detailed description of the license terms is
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available in the \cgal\ software tarball.
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\subsection{QPL \label{licenses:QPL}}
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The {\sc Qpl} is an Open Source license that obliges you to distribute your
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software based on {\sc Qpl}ed \cgal\ data structures. The rationale behind
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this is that we can claim access to your software. The license further obliges
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you to put your software under an Open Source license as well. The rationale
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behind is that we can distribute your software, even if this is not your
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intention. Finally, the {\sc Qpl} requires that, if you modify \cgal, you
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distribute the modifications in the form of patches and you distribute the
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sources of your changes as well.
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The exact license terms as well as an annotated version of the license can be
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found at the Trolltech web site: \path'http://www.trolltech.com/products/qt/licenses/licensing/qpl'
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and \path'http://www.trolltech.com/products/qt/licenses/licensing/qpl-annotated'
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\subsection{LGPL \label{licenses:LGPL}}
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The {\sc Lgpl} is an Open Source license that obliges you to distribute
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modifications you make on \cgal\ software accessible to the users. There is no
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obligation to make the source code of software you build on top of {\sc Lgpl}ed
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\cgal\ data structures available.
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Currently the linear kernel, the support library, the halfedge data structure,
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the kinetic data structures, and the mesh subdivision framework are distributed
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under the {\sc Lgpl}. The rationale behind is that we want to promote them as
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defacto standards.
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The exact license terms can be found at the Free Software Foundation web site:
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\path'http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/lesser.html'.
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\subsection{Commercial Licenses \label{licenses:Commercial}}
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Users who cannot comply to the Open Source license terms can buy individual
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data structures under various commercial licenses from GeometryFactory:
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\path'http://www.geometryfactory.com'.
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\subsection{License Compatibility \label{licenses:Compatibility}}
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The General Public License ({\sc Gpl}) has a viral effect which makes it
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incompatible with the {\sc Qpl}. For more information, please refer to the
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paragraph about the {\sc Qpl} on the licenses web page of the Free Software
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Foundation ({\sc Fsf}): \path'http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/index_html'.
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It is therefore not possible to build a program including {\sc Gpl}
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code and some {\sc Qpl} parts of {\sc Cgal}. In this case, if you are
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the copyright owner of the {\sc Gpl} code, you can amend the license
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by adding an exception allowing the use of {\sc Cgal} with it (see
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again the {\sc Fsf} web page).
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