[sane-devel] Please give me some help to solve the license issues in using sane

[Alessandro Zummo]

On Fri, 6 Jun 2008 11:10:52 -0400
"m. allan noah" <kitno455 at gmail.com> wrote:

> yes- this seems reasonable, however, this 'program' cannot be derived
> from existing GPL'd software that does not already have this added
> permission, because that would change the original program's license
> without permission of the authors.

 correct.
 
> so, is our answer to Mengqiang that there are only four choices?
> 
> 1. you can write an entirely free backend, and use code from SANE.

 yay! :)


> 2. you can write a partly free backend, that runs the closed parts as
> a separate process, and use code from SANE in the free part, provided
> that the interface to the closed parts is simple and well documented.

 this is the hp way if i've got it corretly. I find it a bit ugly.
 

> 3. you can write a partly free backend, that dynamically links to the
> closed parts, provided that you place a license exception in the free
> part allowing said linking. you cannot use any code from SANE, other
> than sane.h and the sane specification, in either part.

 this means that the sane I/O facilities cannot be used. however
 it may be the cleanest thing.

 that's similar to the epkowa way, which uses sane io facilities
 iirc?
 


-- 

 Best regards,

 Alessandro Zummo,
  Tower Technologies - Torino, Italy

  http://www.towertech.it