Bug#617613: closed by Anton Gladky <gladk at debian.org> (Bug#617613: fixed in freecad 0.13.1830-dfsg-2)

[Francesco Poli]

On Fri, 9 Aug 2013 19:41:34 +0200 Anton Gladky wrote:

> 2013/8/9 Francesco Poli <invernomuto at paranoici.org>:
> > the GPL-licensed files are:
> >
> > Files: src/Mod/Draft/*
> >
> > Files: src/Mod/Draft/draftlibs/dxf*
> >
> > Files: src/Mod/Part/MakeBottle.py
> >        src/Tools/*
> >
> > Please clarify whether these files are linked with or incorporated into
> > any program that links with Open CASCADE.
> 
> Most of them are LGPL.

Sorry, but I cannot understand what you mean here.

The above-mentioned files are claimed to be "License: GPL-2+" in the
current debian/copyright file:
http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=debian-science/packages/freecad.git;a=blob;f=debian/copyright;h=81ce65f6a88f3238b1d1cbe24baf36de05fe1608;hb=01b8f377dc5544c280f706b0a82984f8fd8a7ff4

As a consequence, either the debian/copyright file is still wrong
(please update it again, if this is the case), or those files are
GPL-licensed (and *not* LGPL-licensed).

Which is the case?
Please clarify.

> As I understand, they are independent python-scripts
> for different stuffs.

Could you please elaborate?
Are these GPL-licensed files just Python scripts that are run by the
user, outside of FreeCAD?
Or does FreeCAD fork and exec those scripts (with the help a Python
interpreter)?
Or does FreeCAD dynamically link those scripts as plug-ins?

Please see:
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#NFUseGPLPlugins
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLPluginsInNF

Depending on how these files are intended to be used with FreeCAD, they
could or could not constitute an issue, due to the OpenCASCADE
GPL-incompatibility.

> Anyway OCE has no python-interface at all.

But FreeCAD has a Python interface, doesn't it?
And FreeCAD links with OCE...

> 
> > Moreover, I've just noticed that among the dependencies of freecad
> > there's
> >
> >  libsoqt4-20
> >
> > which is licensed under the GNU GPL v2:
> > http://ftp-master.metadata.debian.org/changelogs//main/s/soqt/soqt_1.5.0-
> 
> From their website:
> 
> http://doc.coin3d.org/SoQt/
> 
> "SoQt is a library which provides the glue between Systems in Motion's
> Coin high-level 3D visualization library and Troll Tech's Qt 2D user
> interface library."
> 
> It is used for QT-Coin cooperation.

Yes, but it is still licensed under the GPL GPL v2.
FreeCAD links with it *and* with OpenCASCADE Technology, which is
GPL-incompatible.

So it seems that we still have an issue similar to the one with Coin3D
(which used to be GPL-licensed, but was later re-licensed under the
3-clause BSD, thus solving the issue).

If SoQt is not re-licensed similarly to how Coin3D was, I think
that the issue with freecad is not yet fixed.


Anton, please clarify.

Thanks a lot for your time and for all the effort you're putting into
freecad package maintenance.



-- 
 http://www.inventati.org/frx/frx-gpg-key-transition-2010.txt
 New GnuPG key, see the transition document!
..................................................... Francesco Poli .
 GnuPG key fpr == CA01 1147 9CD2 EFDF FB82  3925 3E1C 27E1 1F69 BFFE
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 836 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/debian-science-maintainers/attachments/20130810/d2b193a5/attachment-0001.sig>