ILI Driver "iom" code is LGPL

[warmerdam]

Pirmin,

The GDAL/OGR Provenance review for OSGeo incubation has highlighted that the ili/iom code is licensed under the LGPL, not the MIT/X license of GDAL/OGR as a whole. This is according to the statement in the ili/iom/README.src.txt file.

It is not compatible with the GDAL/OGR licensing scheme to include LGPL code within GDAL source distributions. Some possible resolutions include:

• Get clear permission from the authors of the code to relicense it under the MIT/X license.
• Move the iom code out of GDAL/OGR and make it an external library that can be linked against to enable Interlis support.
• Move the whole interlis driver out into a distinct package that is built as a runtime loadable plugin somewhat similar to the GRASS plugin but not living in the GDAL tree. This could likely live in the Spike area of the subversion server.
• re-engineer the Interlis driver to not need the iom code (perhaps replicating it).

It is my objective to resolve all pending provenance issues by GDAL 1.5.0 release which I hope to be within four weeks (first beta in a week and a half or so). So I'd appreciate thoughts on approach fairly soon.

[rouault]

I don't want to launch a licence debate. But why would it be a problem for GDAL/OGR having a mix of MIT/X code and LGPL code ? Because of GDAL being known and advertised as a "pure" MIT/X code project I guess ? However there's no LICENCE or COPYING file in gdal root directory. But we have this nice PROVENANCE.txt file that indicates the licence of each part of the library. Furthermore, there's still suspicious GPL code apparently, like frmts/msg/xritheaderparser.cpp. For me, that's a serious issue ! In comparison, LGPL code is rarely a problem, even for inclusion into proprietary software.

Another solution that we could image would be to keep all the current code in GDAL source tree and having a configure flag like '--enable-lgpl-code=yes/no', 'no' being the default value.

[warmerdam]

Even (Rouault),

If there is any LGPL code within the GDAL DLL/.so then effectively LGPL conditions apply to the whole thing. This is not in keeping with the GDAL licensing intention. It's fine for GDAL to depend on external LGPL components.

GPL code is also not going to be acceptable.

Making support for Interlis format optional while remaining in the source tree would remain an option if absolutely necessary, but we would need to make it very clear to users that by enabling it they are forced to live by LGPL requirements.

More general licensing discussions should likely happen in gdal-dev or elsewhere.

[warmerdam]

Pirmin,

Also noted in the provenance review is a concern about the iom/ili2c.jar file. Can you provide provenance background on this .jar?

[pka]

I forwarded the license questions to the author of the IOM module. Claude will discuss it with the sponsor.

[warmerdam]

Pirmin,

As we discussed in Victoria, I have removed ili2c.jar from trunk, and moved one copy to  http://home.gdal.org/dl/ili2c.jar. I have updated the document to say "For using the INTERLIS model (.ili) a Java interpreter is needed at runtime, and the <a href=" http://home.gdal.org/dl/ili2c.jar">ili2c.jar</a> file must be in the Java path." This is r12412. Can you review, and make sure this makes sense?

I think we also discuss the license for the IOM module, but I don't recall the outcome. Have you heard back from Claude?

[pka]

I got the confirmation from the author for changing the license. This is r12582.

Subject: Re: Fwd: [GDAL] #1812: ILI Driver "iom" code is LGPL
Date: Donnerstag, 25. Oktober 2007
From: Claude Eisenhut
To: Pirmin Kalberer

Pirmin,

ja, ich gebe den IOM Code unter MIT/X weiter.

Genügt das als Bestätigung?

Die aktuelle Version ist übrigens auf iom.sourceforge.net.

Claude

[rouault]

Frank,

ogr/ogrsf_frmts/ili/iom/README.src.txt still mentions

License
IOM is licensed under the LGPL (Lesser GNU Public License).

This should be probably changed to reflect the licence change to MIT/X ?

[rouault]

In fact, this file has been changed in IOM CVS 3 months ago to reflect the licence change:  http://iom.cvs.sourceforge.net/iom/iom/docs/README.src.txt?r1=1.1&r2=1.2

I grabbed it and commited it in trunk in r13904