[GRASS5] Re: [bug #4248] (grass) r.surf.contour: Treats 0 as NULL and other archaic problems

---

nn
Natural Neighbours interpolation library
Version 1.57

C library functions and two utilities for Natural Neighbours
interpolation.

Copyright 2000-2005 CSIRO Marine Research
GPO 1538 Hobart
TAS 7001
Australia
Please send comments and bugs to Pavel.Sakov@csiro.au

There is no warranty whatsoever. Use at your own risk.

This code may be freely redistributed under the condition that the
copyright notices are not removed. You may distribute modified
versions of this code UNDER THE CONDITION THAT THIS CODE AND ANY
MODIFICATIONS MADE TO IT IN THE SAME FILE REMAIN UNDER COPYRIGHT OF
CSIRO, BOTH SOURCE AND OBJECT CODE ARE MADE FREELY AVAILABLE WITHOUT
CHARGE, AND CLEAR NOTICE IS GIVEN OF THE MODIFICATIONS.

---

"BOTH SOURCE AND OBJECT CODE ARE MADE FREELY AVAILABLE WITHOUT CHARGE"

I don't know if that is GPL compatible; you can sell GPL binaries, you
just have to give your customer the source code if they want it (and if
the customer wants they can do what they want with it, e.g. publish that
source on the net for everyone else).

Also I don't like the fact that any changes I make to the code become
"property" of CSRIO, even if it is easy enough to keep nn as a function
in separate file.

But the license name is not mentioned if this matters. I will ask
author right away.

Maybe he is happy with a GPL or dual-GPL license agreement with GRASS.

Hamish

Hi,

I think I'll separate the nnbathy topic from the bug #4248 thread.

On Thu, 6 Apr 2006 13:42:20 +1200
Hamish <hamish_nospam@yahoo.com> wrote:

Maciek Sieczka wrote:

> ---
>
> nn
> Natural Neighbours interpolation library
> Version 1.57
>
> C library functions and two utilities for Natural Neighbours
> interpolation.
>
> Copyright 2000-2005 CSIRO Marine Research
> GPO 1538 Hobart
> TAS 7001
> Australia
> Please send comments and bugs to Pavel.Sakov@csiro.au
>
> There is no warranty whatsoever. Use at your own risk.
>
> This code may be freely redistributed under the condition that the
> copyright notices are not removed. You may distribute modified
> versions of this code UNDER THE CONDITION THAT THIS CODE AND ANY
> MODIFICATIONS MADE TO IT IN THE SAME FILE REMAIN UNDER COPYRIGHT OF
> CSIRO, BOTH SOURCE AND OBJECT CODE ARE MADE FREELY AVAILABLE WITHOUT
> CHARGE, AND CLEAR NOTICE IS GIVEN OF THE MODIFICATIONS.
>
> ---

"BOTH SOURCE AND OBJECT CODE ARE MADE FREELY AVAILABLE WITHOUT CHARGE"

I don't know if that is GPL compatible; you can sell GPL binaries, you
just have to give your customer the source code if they want it (and
if the customer wants they can do what they want with it, e.g.
publish that source on the net for everyone else).

Also I don't like the fact that any changes I make to the code become
"property" of CSRIO, even if it is easy enough to keep nn as a
function in separate file.

> But the license name is not mentioned if this matters. I will ask
> author right away.

Here's what Pavel Sakov, the nnbathy author, says:

# Hi Maciek,
#
# There is no file LICENSE in the nn package; the conditions of use are
# spelled out in README. I think that they are not restrictive at all.
# Basically, I am happy for it to be used anywere as long as the
# copyright is preserved and modifications are made public.
#
# FYI, quite a few times people who would like to use nn could not do
# so because of the more restrictive license of triangle (the package
# by Jonathan Shewchuk used in nn for underlying triangulation). My
# understanding is that one is allowed to use it freely in a
# non-commercial software.
#
# One possible way around is to use qhull instead of triangle, which is
# what has been done by plplot team. (It is also a good idea to contact
# Jonathan Shewchuk before you proceed.)
#
# Good luck,
# Pavel

Maybe he is happy with a GPL or dual-GPL license agreement with GRASS.

I'll better forward to him.

Pavel,

I hope you don't mind :). Could you please answer Hamish?

Hamish,

Regarding the triangle software which nnbathy uses, it is here:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~quake/triangle.html

As to it's license, the triangle README says:

--- triangle README ---

These programs may be freely redistributed under the condition that the
copyright notices (including the copy of this notice in the code
comments and the copyright notice printed when the `-h' switch is
selected) are not removed, and no compensation is received. Private,
research, and institutional use is free. You may distribute modified
versions of this code UNDER THE CONDITION THAT THIS CODE AND ANY
MODIFICATIONS MADE TO IT IN THE SAME FILE REMAIN UNDER COPYRIGHT OF THE
ORIGINAL AUTHOR, BOTH SOURCE AND OBJECT CODE ARE MADE FREELY AVAILABLE
WITHOUT CHARGE, AND CLEAR NOTICE IS GIVEN OF THE MODIFICATIONS.
Distribution of this code as part of a commercial system is permissible
ONLY BY DIRECT ARRANGEMENT WITH THE AUTHOR. (If you are not directly
supplying this code to a customer, and you are instead telling them how
they can obtain it for free, then you are not required to make any
arrangement with me.)

--- triangle README ---

Maciek

--------------------
W polskim Internecie s? setki milion?w stron. My przekazujemy Tobie tylko najlepsze z nich!
http://katalog.panoramainternetu.pl/

Pavel wrote:

1. This software belongs to CSIRO, not me. The conditions of use in
the README file are probably more loose than the ones you could
possibly negotiate with CSIRO now (for historic reasons; the current
policy is aimed at commercialization).

Understood, all too well. Same pressures here in NZ.. (for what it's
worth I'm an oceanographer in Dunedin).

2. These conditions were recognized as compatible with LGPL license by
the plplot team; and the nn code is currently used in plplot package
for gridding of scattered data.

Ok, sounds good. see below.

3. Frankly, I can not see why the ownership is such a big issue here.
One can always make changes in a separate file if the ownership is
important.

The main thing before using any code is that we can't violate anyone's
(GRASS's CSRIO's, etc) license agreements. I'm just being cautious, not
judging the goodness or badness of any license choice.

As far as I concern about such matters wrt GRASS, this means we should
be sure that anything we use is DFSG-compliant.
  http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines
Mainly I figure they're smarter and have thought and dealt more about
these issues than I am/have. i.e. If the Debian-legal team is happy, I'm
happy.

A very good sign - it's already in Debian and already a library:

$ apt-cache show libcsiro0
Package: libcsiro0
Priority: optional
Section: libs
Installed-Size: 88
Maintainer: Rafael Laboissiere <rafael@debian.org>
Architecture: i386
Source: plplot
Version: 5.3.1-4
Depends: libplplot9 (= 5.3.1-4), libc6 (>= 2.3.2.ds1-4), libqhull5
Conflicts: libplplot5, libplplot9 (<< 5.3.0.cvs.20040303)
Filename: pool/main/p/plplot/libcsiro0_5.3.1-4_i386.deb
Size: 25988
MD5sum: 0b82ead9a741d940339b0fa3570a2263
Description: Scientific plotting library
This package contains two libraries developed by Pavel Sakov, from the
CSIRO Marine Research, used in geometry applications:
.
  * libcsirocsa: bivariate Cubic Spline Approximation library
  * libcsironn: Natural Neighbours interpolation library
.
The source code for these libraries are part of the plplot source
package.
.
Homepage: http://www.plplot.org

This means we only need to link to the untouched libcsiro library (as we
do with GDAL), everybody is happy, end of story. (I hope)
(just need someone to write the module :wink:

Hope this helps. If you are really serious about "GPL or dual-GPL
license agreement with GRASS" and would like to negotiate with CSIRO,
I can find a contact for you to deal with.

I believe your comment #2 showing that it is already cleanly packaged
obviates that need.

thanks for the feedback, as you can see it was quite useful.

Hamish