[Insight-users] ITK LICENSE CHANGE TO OSI-APPROVED BSD LICENSE: STARTING WITH ITK 3.6

[kurt Zhao]

Hi Luis,

Thanks for the update.

My understanding is that under the previous license, if ITK is adopted
for commercial usage, the commercial software doesn't have to be open
source. Is it correct? If so, is this assumption changed under the new
license?

Thanks!

-Kurt

On Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 1:48 AM, Luis Ibanez <luis.ibanez at kitware.com> wrote:
>
>  Dear ITK Users,
>
>  Starting with ITK 3.6, The Insight Toolkit will be distributed
>  under the new-and-simplified BSD License approved by the Open
>  Source Initiative (OSI):
>
>            http://www.itk.org/HTML/Copyright.htm
>
>  As you probably know, the OSI (http://www.opensource.org/) is
>  the community-recognized body for reviewing and approving
>  licenses as conformant with the "Open Source Definition":
>
>             http://www.opensource.org/docs/osd
>
>  As the label of "Open Source" gains more and more positive
>  reputation, it is important to define very well what the label
>  means, and when is that the label can be applied to specific
>  software packages.
>
>  The de-facto definition of Open Source today is:
>
>      "to be distributed under an OSI-approved license"
>
>  The previous license of ITK, was a modified version of the
>  traditional BSD license and as such, it was not an OSI-approved
>  license.
>
>
>  The new ITK BSD license and the previous ITK license differ
>  only in one of the terms. The previous license has four terms
>  (or conditions) while the new BSD license has only three.
>
>
>  The terms of the previous license read:
>  ------------------------------------------------------------------
>  Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
>  modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
>  are met:
>
>   * Redistributions of source code must retain the above
>     copyright notice, this list of conditions and the
>     following disclaimer.
>
>   * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above
>     copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following
>     disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials
>     provided with the distribution.
>
>   * The name of the Insight Software Consortium, nor the names
>     of any consortium members, nor of any contributors, may be
>     used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
>     without specific prior written permission.
>
>   * Modified source versions must be plainly marked as such, and
>     must not be  misrepresented as being the original software.
>
>  ------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  ==================================================================
>
>
>  The terms of the new BSD license read:
>  ------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
>  modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
>  are met:
>
>      * Redistributions of source code must retain the above
>        copyright notice, this list of conditions and the
>        following disclaimer.
>
>      * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above
>        copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following
>        disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided
>        with the distribution.
>
>      * Neither the name of the Insight Software Consortium nor the names
>        of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products
>        derived from this software without specific prior written
>        permission.
>
>  ------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>  The difference between the two licenses is in the fourth
>  term of the previous license:
>
>   * Modified source versions must be plainly marked as such, and
>     must not be  misrepresented as being the original software.
>
>
>  The license change is therefore equivalent to removing one term
>  (or condition) and therefore the new license is "more open" (in
>  the sense that it is less restrictive and impose less conditions
>  on the recipients of the source code) than the previous license.
>
>  We hope that this license change will benefit the great community
>  of ITK users, and that it will simplify their continued adoption
>  of the toolkit for research, education and commercial endeavors.
>
>  We strongly encourage you, as users of Open Source software to
>  pay close attention to the licenses of all software (and any other
>  copyrighted material) that you adopt, to make sure that it conforms
>  to the expectations of the "Open source" label, as defined by the
>  Open Source Initiative:
>
>                 http://www.opensource.org/docs/osd
>
>
>  Note that previous versions of ITK (any version before ITK 3.6)
>  are still distributed under the previous ITK license.
>
>
>  Please don't hesitate to let us know if you have any questions
>  or concerns regarding the change of the ITK License.
>
>
>      Regards,
>
>
>         Luis
>
>
>
>
>
>
>  _______________________________________________
>  Insight-users mailing list
>  Insight-users at itk.org
>  http://www.itk.org/mailman/listinfo/insight-users
>
>