kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx>]

Just a quick update on the licensing front.  I just committed a change
that included updating the KiCad source from GPL2+ to GPL3+ per the FSF.
 I also updated the newstroke font license from CC-BY to CC0 per the
original author.  I am waiting to hear back from the geda devs about
using their GPL exception clause for our libraries.

Would one of our website devs please update the KiCad licensing from
GPL2+ to GPL3+.  As soon as I get an answer from the geda devs, I will
submit an GPL exception clause for our libraries.

On 11/18/2015 6:36 AM, "Torsten Hüter" wrote:
> Hi Wayne,
>  
> 
>>> Is there somewhere an overview of the used libraries / 3rd party software and their licenses? (for instance an list, >LibreOffice table or similar)
>>
>> No.
> 
> Would it be helpful to create a table for the internal documentation? If yes, how should the table look like and what kind of format should be used?
>  
>>> The push and shove router is covered by the GPLv3+. This means the whole KiCad package has to be released under the terms of >>the GPLv3 license, if you're including the P&S-router.
>>>
>>> However, all of the license files in kicad say 2+.
>>>
>>> However, the "About../License" tab shows the following text:
>>>
>>> "The complete KiCad EDA Suite is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2 or any later version"
>>>
>>> I would think this would be adequate but I have not asked the FSF. Do
>>> we actually have to do this or is the GPL2+ statement OK.
> 
> I'm not a lawyer but would say that it is a one-way road, you can't "downgrade" from GPL3+ to GPL2+ and
> the whole package has to be distributed under the terms of the GPL3+ license. You can find on slashdot.org an interesting discussion about this subject:
> 
> http://ask.slashdot.org/story/07/06/16/1818241/gplv2-and-gplv3-coexisting-in-the-same-project
> 
> Perhaps it makes sense to ask an (license) expert too.
> 
>> Is it directly derived or is it a clean room implementation? It doesn't
>> say anywhere that I could see that it is derived from the Hershey font.
>> If it's a clean room implementation than we could ask if it can be
>> re-licensed to be GPL compatible.
> 
> This is indeed a very good question. I've seen in the helpers/tools_to_build_newstroke-font/README.txt the following line:
> font_draft1.lib - old draft glyph library with the metrics from Hersheys Simplex
> So I'm guessing he has extended the Hershey font. Of course it could be that he has repainted all chars/symbols. Still then is the problem, that he has released the font under the terms of the CC-BY license.
> 
> Asking the original author is a very good idea. 
> 
>> This would push back the stable release. How do you suggest we package
>> the fonts? Packaging them separately is going to be painful.
> 
> This is quite true, but only required if the font can't be relicensed to GPL. If the GPL is choosen, it would make sense to define a GPL font exception for the KiCAD suite - so that the font can be embedded into the user design without affecting the design license.
> 
> If the author does not agree, it could be necessary to seperate the font from the program. The "newstroke" font is contained in a header (helpers/tools_to_build_newstroke-font/newstroke_font.h). This is an array of strings, the format is relative simple - one way could be a reader, that parses this header at runtime - or put the strings into a separate file and parse them there.
> 
>> I like what the geda folks did. They basically give you permission to
>> modify the symbols for use in your designs but enforced the GPL if you
>> are going to provide libraries of files derived from the symbols. We
>> should make a similar statement about our libraries since they are GPL
>> licensed if no one objects.
> 
> Sounds like a good plan! 
> It would be important to define a policy as well; any contributor has to agree with the terms of this license. 
> I don't know if that's true for all parts of the library - last time I've seen some contributions with a different licenses.
> 
> Thanks,
> Torsten
> 
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