camlpdf's license (was Re: [Caml-list] [ANN] Proview PDF Editor for Mac OS X - written (mostly) in OCaml)

camlpdf's license (was Re: [Caml-list] [ANN] Proview PDF Editor for Mac OS X - written (mostly) in OCaml)

[Daniel Bünzli]

John,

I once glanced over your interesting literate program and would
certainly consider using camlpdf if I needed to peform advanced pdf
processing.

However one thing that bugs me is that your licensing terms
explicitely discriminates against use by a number of companies. The
problem is what tells me that my name won't appear on that list on the
next release ?

Of course any piece of free software can add a new license clause on
the next release to discriminate against someone. So in some sense
using camlpdf is not less safe to use than any other piece of free
software.

But still, I'd be nervous to use it knowing that you seem to be in
this mindset. Do you have maybe something to say about this ? or
better do you maybe plan to remove that clause in the next release ?

Best & thanks for the source,

Daniel

Re: camlpdf's license (was Re: [Caml-list] [ANN] Proview PDF Editor for Mac OS X - written (mostly) in OCaml)

[John Whitington]

Hi Daniel,

On 15/02/2010 19:36, Daniel Bünzli wrote:
> John,
>
> I once glanced over your interesting literate program and would
> certainly consider using camlpdf if I needed to peform advanced pdf
> processing.
>
> However one thing that bugs me is that your licensing terms
> explicitely discriminates against use by a number of companies. The
> problem is what tells me that my name won't appear on that list on the
> next release ?
>
> Of course any piece of free software can add a new license clause on
> the next release to discriminate against someone. So in some sense
> using camlpdf is not less safe to use than any other piece of free
> software.
>
> But still, I'd be nervous to use it knowing that you seem to be in
> this mindset. Do you have maybe something to say about this ? or
> better do you maybe plan to remove that clause in the next release ?

This restriction is placed there due to a clause in the contract I 
originally developed this code under for a commercial company - I was 
paid for writing it, and in exchange we have shared copyright.

I cannot remove it without their permission. I can't imagine any 
circumstances under which I would add such a clause myself. Since the 
contract under which it was developed has ended, there is no way that 
they could induce me to add to the list of companies in that clause, and 
I would not do so.

I'm not happy with the situation, but I hope the above reassures.

Cheers,

-- 
John Whitington
Director, Coherent Graphics Ltd
http://www.coherentpdf.com/

Re: camlpdf's license (was Re: [Caml-list] [ANN] Proview PDF Editor for Mac OS X - written (mostly) in OCaml)

[Daniel Bünzli]

> I'm not happy with the situation, but I hope the above reassures.

Yes, thanks.

Daniel