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

[Wang Mengqiang]

Hello, 

>;-----Original Message-----
>;From: kilgota at banach.math.auburn.edu 
>;[mailto:kilgota at banach.math.auburn.edu] 
>;Sent: Friday, June 06, 2008 10:40 PM
>;To: Wang Mengqiang
>;Cc: Alessandro Zummo; SPD-GW; sane-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org
>;Subject: RE: [sane-devel] Please give me some help to solve 
>;the license issues in using sane
>;

[snip]

>;>
>;> your politeness and enthusiasm impressed me deeply.  very 
>;glad to exchange personal opinion.
>;> Wang mengqiang
>;
>;
>;Thank you very much for the reply. I am aware that there are 
>;issues and problems, and I totally agree that there needs to 
>;be dialog. The difficulty is, as I see it, there has been no 
>;dialog. Communication needs to take place in both directions 
>;and it does not. These are the facts as I have experienced 
>;them. I mean, if a company would at least reply and say that 
>;"We cannot release any information about X, because of the 
>;following issues" then that would be a reply, would it not?


I think, the most important issue is that it is the limitation of the information security rule in company. Maybe, No one will said that it will and must cause our secret by X company directly, but so is it. You can believe in that in fact those information is very simple, and, some one can get it from other way easily.  But, it does not mean the company is willing to open it. So, please do not mind what the hardware manufacturer is unwilling to open and why they are unwilling to open. IMHO, You'd better not wish to replace the manufacters to develop software alway although you don't ask money from them. For example, you are building the high-way, I think, it is better to focus on how to build the high quality high-way, how to improve the speed of auto on the road, how to design the entrance to lead more cars and  reduce the jam. It is not very necessary to know how to produce a car, motor, truck although you are interested in them, please stop the desire to ask the auto manufacturers to open their information for you to produce cars by yourself. You can insist that you are mechanic or electrician who can work for high way constructing or car producting as now you are software developer who can develop both the framework and the driver for hardware.   That is not the reason to ask them to open all information that you are interested in and wish to develop something instead of them.  I wish my example will not mislead you. Breifly, my opinion is that the key point is to determine the cooperation approach of open source world and hardware manufacturer, then every side take charge of own  task. please forgive me and donot think it is a offense if you think my opinion is not proper. Thanks. 

 
>;And then perhaps there would be something to talk about. But 
>;in my experience there is not even a reply. We all have our 
>;sensitivities. I mentioned politeness. If one sends to 
>;someone a request for information, which seems not 
>;unreasonable to the sender, and the request is not even 
>;dignified with a response, then that does not seem very 
>;polite, either. I mention this while we are on the topic of 
>;possible cultural differences and sources of misunderstanding.
>;
>;Now, as to the topic at hand, between your company and the 
>;SANE project, I am something of a bystander. I subscribe to 
>;this list because of general interest and because, years ago, 
>;I was given for Christmas a Canon N640U scanner which needed 
>;to be supported and Canon was either unwilling or unable to 
>;provide that support. However, as something of a bystander, I 
>;will make two observations:
>;
>;1. I notice that several responses to you are asking that, 
>;just what part of the scanner's functioning is supposed to be 
>;a proprietary module and what part is intended to be 
>;supported code coming from SANE. That seems to me a 
>;reasonable request, and probably without an answer it is not 
>;possible to proceed.
>;

I think, what  function is not the key point. Key point is how to make it proper or whether it is proper. 

>;2. Not all projects have precisely the same license. For 
>;example, some other large projects use the LGPL license, 
>;which can more easily permit linking of a proprietary 
>;executable program than the GPL can do. Thus, depending on 
>;the questions you ask and depending on what the answer to a 
>;question analogous to item 1 is, you might get a different 
>;response to a similar question from some other project using 
>;LGPL. I do not want you or anyone else who reads this to 
>;assume that I am recommending one of these licenses over the 
>;other in the context of this discussion, or for that matter 
>;outside of it. I merely mention that the terms and conditions 
>;of the two licenses are not identical.
>;

Sure, LGPL was changed in some aspect. And, after I read the document http://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-not-lgpl.html
I can understand the reason that GPL exists. That is, this is the only way to run your car  at present, so, you must tell me how to produce your car, or please build the way by yourself. Perhaps I should think, in my example, the goal of the open source world is to establish the free trafic system including high way, auto... or the final goal is to establish the extrem free world. 

>;Permit me to make a comparison in order to illustrate what 
>;you are dealing with, here. I do not know how it fits the 
>;history of some societies of eastern Asia, but in Europe and 
>;the Middle East there is a long history of craft guilds. You 
>;are not negotiating with individuals. You are negotiating 
>;with the guild. The guild has its collective interests. That 
>;is why it exists and continues to exist. The guild has its 
>;own property. 
>;That property is in the open, but it is licenced in such a 
>;way that it cannot easily be misappropriated. The guild will 
>;guard its property with at least equal zealousness to the 
>;companies which will not answer letters from the guild 
>;members. This is an apparently new phenomenon in the computer 
>;and software industry. Most of the big companies did not 
>;expect it. But it is here.
>;

yes, I understood it, so, I'd like to get everyone's comments here in order to obey the guild custom.

Wang mengqiang