[Insight-developers] ITKv4 : LICENSE Changed to Apache 2.0
Luis Ibanez
luis.ibanez at kitware.com
Fri Oct 8 09:55:07 EDT 2010
Hi Tom,
Please see comments below.
Thanks
Luis
--------------------------------------
On Thu, Oct 7, 2010 at 2:40 PM, Tom Vercauteren <tom.vercauteren at m4x.org>wrote:
> Hi Luis,
>
> Excuse my ignorance about licenses but I have a few questions
> regarding this change.
>
>
Discussing the terms of the license is very important,
so, Thank You for asking.
We must do our best to ensure that every user and
developer understand the terms of the license.
> 1) Does the redistribution clause 4.2 requires that if someone
> distributes some binary software that uses a patched ITK, this someone
> has to mention the names of all patched files? This is what I
> understand from
> http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.html#redistribution
> but the FAQ seems to say otherwise
> http://www.apache.org/foundation/licence-FAQ.html#WhatDoesItMEAN
> I hope the FAQ has it right because it seems a bit cumbersome to list
> all modified files in a place accessible to the end user. Not that I
> keep ITK patches privately but I often have some ITK patches in my
> software before they make it to ITK proper.
>
>
The "intent" of the clause is to prevent a developer from modifying the
software and redistribute the modification creating the impression that
it is the original software. The goal is to prevent confusion among users
and to protect the reputation of the software.
This only applies if you decide to redistribute the source code of the
modified files, in which case, it is good sense to visibly indicate that
this is: "Tom's improved version of ITK", and not the original release
of "ITK 3.20" (for example).
A similar clause used to exist in the initial BSD-modified version of
license that ITK 1.0 had. That was indeed the clause that made that
license to be not-BSD. We subsequently changed to the OSI-approved
BSD license, in order to adhere to the good practices of open source.
It you are distributing a binary version of an application that was built
with a "modified ITK", then the clause does not apply to you, since you
are not required to distribute the source code of the modified ITK.
2) Regarding the code that lies in Code/Patented. Did any of the
> inventors actually contributed to it? If so, I guess that we need to
> get rid of it before making the license change effective.
> http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.html#patent
> Am I understanding it correctly?
>
>
Yes you are understanding it correctly.
For the methods in the Patented directory,
such licenses have not been granted at this point.
Therefore, files that implement methods known to be
covered by a patent will be removed from ITKv4.
Patented methods will be welcome as long as the patent
assignee provides permission to use them under the terms
defined by the Apache 2.0 License:
Namely:
http://www.itk.org/Wiki/ITK_Release_4/Licensing#Patents
*"3. Grant of Patent License.*
*Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, each Contributor
hereby grants to You a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge,
royalty-free, irrevocable (except as stated in this section) patent license
to make, have made, use, offer to sell, sell, import, and otherwise transfer
the Work, where such license applies only to those patent claims licensable
by such Contributor that are necessarily infringed by their Contribution(s)
alone or by combination of their Contribution(s) with the Work to which such
Contribution(s) was submitted. If You institute patent litigation against
any entity (including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging
that the Work or a Contribution incorporated within the Work constitutes
direct or contributory patent infringement, then any patent licenses granted
to You under this License for that Work shall terminate as of the date such
litigation is filed."*
We will remove the "Patented" directory
from the Git repository in the following days.
A similar removal of patented methods was
made in VTK several years ago, and we are
overdue for doing the same in ITK.
--------------------
> 3) In two words (if that is possible) what is the rationale for making
> this change?
>
> --------------------
Are you referring to the change from BSD to Apache 2.0 License ?
If so: Good point,
I should have added that to the Wiki page...
Here is now a new section addressing this point:
http://www.itk.org/Wiki/ITK_Release_4/Licensing#Rationale
copy/pasted:
------------------
The motivations to replace the *BSD License* with the *Apache 2.0* License
include
1. The *Apache 2.0* License is a more modern and better drafted license.
In particular
- It explicitly define all the key terms used in the license: License,
Licensor, Source, Object, Work, Derivative Works...
- It explicitly states your permissions for *Copyright* rights
- It explicitly states your permissions for *Patent* rights (as
opposed to the BSD license, where Patent rights are given only
implicitly by
the sole presence of the work "use").
2. The Apache License includes a clause of implicit intent for
contributors
- Under this clause, it is assumed that any contribution that you sent
is provided also under the terms of the Apache 2.0 license.
3. Apache includes a clause of reciprocity by which a user of the
software will lose the Patent permissions granted by the license, if she
engages in litigation against the contributors.
The *Apache 2.0* license is a well established license in the Open Source
community and has been very closely evaluated by commercial, academic and
non-profit organizations.
> As far as the header is concerned, I also like to have a simple header.
>
> Tom
>
>
Please don't hesitate to let us know if you have
any question or concerns.
This is a very important change, and we want to
make sure that all developers and users become
familiar and comfortable with the terms of the license.
Thanks
Luis
-----------------------------------------
> On Thu, Oct 7, 2010 at 19:41, Luis Ibanez <luis.ibanez at kitware.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Stephen,
> >
> >
> > You were right at the tcon, in that the license change
> > was not applied yet to the top of the ITK source tree.
> >
> >
> > I thought we have actually done so back in July...
> > My mistake.
> >
> >
> > -------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >
> > To All:
> >
> >
> > We have now proceeded to change the license from
> > BSD to Apache 2.0, as agreed by the Board of the
> > Insight Software Consortium, back in Januay 2010.
> >
> >
> > The change applies to ITKv4 and does not affect
> > previous releases of the toolkit.
> >
> >
> > Full Details are in the following Wiki page:
> > http://www.itk.org/Wiki/ITK_Release_4/Licensing
> >
> > That is linked from:
> > http://www.itk.org/Wiki/ITK_Release_4.0#LICENSE_Change
> >
> >
> > In Summary:
> >
> >
> > 1) A file "LICENSE" has been added at the top of the
> > ITK Source tree, containing the full text of the
> > Apache 2.0 license:
> >
> >
> http://itk.org/gitweb?p=ITK.git;a=commit;h=a0ff25c3fec0911f948f9bbb7a3ec684f2926e46
> >
> >
> > 2) A file "NOTICE" is now at the top of the ITK source tree,
> > containing a manifesto of the copyright and licenses of
> > third party files that are distributed along with the toolkit,
> > and/or section of code that have been integrated with
> > the ITK toolkit. (in the same commit).
> >
> >
> > 3) The File: ITK/Copyright/ITKCopyright.txt
> > is now pointing to the files: LICENSE and NOTICE
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Pending:
> > =======
> >
> >
> > A) We must now change the text of the license and copyright notice in
> >
> > http://www.itk.org/ITK/project/license.html
> >
> > that is the alias for
> >
> > http://www.itk.org/HTML/Copyright.htm
> >
> > B) We must apply the change to the headers of all ITK files.
> >
> > The proposed new header is shown here:
> >
> > http://www.itk.org/Wiki/ITK_Release_4/Licensing#File_Header_Changes
> >
> >
> > Comments are welcome.
> >
> >
> >
> > C) The subdirectory "ITK/Copyright" (and its content) must be
> > removed, since now all its information is contained in the
> > LICENSE and NOTICE files.
> >
> >
> > =================================================
> >
> >
> >
> > There are probably modifications that must be applied in other
> > places in the toolkit, and its related documentation, so if you find
> > any, please point them out to us so we can fix them promptly.
> >
> >
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> >
> >
> > Luis
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Powered by www.kitware.com
> >
> > Visit other Kitware open-source projects at
> > http://www.kitware.com/opensource/opensource.html
> >
> > Kitware offers ITK Training Courses, for more information visit:
> > http://kitware.com/products/protraining.html
> >
> > Please keep messages on-topic and check the ITK FAQ at:
> > http://www.itk.org/Wiki/ITK_FAQ
> >
> > Follow this link to subscribe/unsubscribe:
> > http://www.itk.org/mailman/listinfo/insight-developers
> >
> >
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.itk.org/mailman/private/insight-developers/attachments/20101008/2cf6f6b6/attachment-0003.htm>
More information about the Insight-developers
mailing list