Hi! I noticed today that the licence change of GeoGebra leaves the program in a very messy situation. GeoGebra is a fantastic piece of software for use in education -- I use it myself and know many others who do so, which is why I would like to work with you to resolve this problem.
Let me firstly say that I completely appreciate why you have taken steps to differentiate between commercial and non-commercial licensing. My experience is, however, that engagement with the wider free software community is much more fruitful and will lead to code contributions in a way that restrictive licences will not. Moreover, free software authors have a very long tradition of being able to obtain cash or in-kind contributions from commercial organisations who are using free software by directly engaging with them. More carrot and less stick is a more reliable approach. The conclusions I draw below are not only based on the idealism of Free Software that I hold as a Debian Developer but also on pragmatic, practical and legal readings of the licences involved. I have drawn on the Debian project's twenty years of experience in dealing with software licences. The problems I highlight below not only cause problems for the Debian project (and its derivatives like Ubuntu) but are also a fundamental problem for the International GeoGebra Institute itself and all other educational institutions that want to use GeoGebra. The current situation will lead to GeoGebra being removed from the mainstream Linux distributions (Debian, Debian- Edu/SkoleLinux, Ubuntu, Fedora etc). It also precludes mass-deployment of GeoGebra in educational institutions, especially in environments where a student is given a physical device like a laptop that is imaged by a central IT department. I feel quite confident that the above scenario was not the outcome that the International GeoGebra Institute had in mind when relicensing GeoGebra. It would be great if we could have an open discussion and sort out this problem. To specific details: Let us first be very precise and recognise that this is not a licence clarification but a licence change. Version 4.0.34.0, for instance, clearly places the work under GPLv3 and CC-BY-SA 3.0. The licence text goes on to discuss commercial vs non-commercial use but only in the context where you "put the resulting work under your copyright". That is to say that commercial usage is permitted, the software is free for anyone to use, free for them to modify and free for them to redistribute. The restrictions here are against people claiming copyright over material that is actually the copyright of the GeoGebra authors; this is a perfectly reasonable thing to do and in fact is already covered by the GPLv3 anyway. However, the licence text attached to version 4.2.55.0 is GPLv3 and CC-BY-NC- SA 3.0 and additional restrictions. A conversion from CC-BY-SA 3.0 to CC-BY- NC-SA 3.0 is not clarification. The imposition of the extra restrictions is not confined to just the properties files but applies to java source code as well [0]; this is not a clarification but the imposition of a large number of restrictive conditions. The intent of this licence is to impose restrictions on commercial usage in such a way that users are no longer free to use the software. No users are permitted to redistribute the software (§10) which would also make redistribution of modified versions impossible as well. No-one is permitted to improve GeoGebra. GeoGebra is no longer free software. Have all copyright holders (java programmers, artists, translators -- there are many!) who contributed their work under the old licence terms agreed to the relicencing of their work? Does that include the CEA/CNRS/INRI who are copyright holders for the sections derived from scilab? The claim in §9 that GeoGebra is "Copyright (C) International GeoGebra Institute, 2013" is at best an assertion about the compilation; it does not cover significant chunks of the code or the bundled libraries and those bits of code are not the International GeoGebra Institute's to relicence. The licence text goes to great lengths to impose additional restrictions over and above the GPLv3 while also stating that GeoGebra is available under GPLv3 (clause 3 of the GeoGebra licence). Under §7 of GPLv3, I am permitted to ignore any additional restrictions imposed on me by the GeoGebra licence. This would strike out the entirety of the "non-commercial" aspects of the licence and the other restrictions about redistribution (§10). (The licence itself is not self-consistent on the point of redistribution; §10 forbids redistribution, while the preamble permits it.) At this point in the analysis, I am left with two choices: (a) I can conclude that GeoGebra is actually GPLv3 and strike out the rest of the licence terms. Anyone can use GeoGebra for commercial or non-commercial purposes; it's Free Software. (b) I can conclude that GeoGebra is *not* available under the GPLv3 as there are additional restrictions in force. Unfortunately, that means that GeoGebra is instead under a GPL-incompatible licence. Scenario (b) puts the International GeoGebra Institute in violation of the licences of two libraries that GeoGebra is linked against. EPS Graphics and JLaTeXMath are both licensed under the GPL "either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version". Additionally, the International GeoGebra Institute is in violation of the scilab licence which covers section of the java code and which does not permit discrimination based on the field of endeavour (§5.1 of scilab's COPYING [1]). Precompiled binaries of GeoGebra containing these libraries (such as the ones found at [2]) can only be offered if the licence terms of the entire download are compatible with the constituent parts. If we accept that "GPLv3 + CC-BY- NC-SA 3.0 + additional restrictions" is more than just GPLv3 (i.e. we ignore §7 of GPLv3), then this licence is not compatible with either GPLv2 or GPLv3 as required by EPS Graphics, JLaTeXMath; it's also incompatible with scilab. At present, distribution of recent versions of GeoGebra by anyone *including* International GeoGebra Institute is in violation of the licence JLaTeXMath, EPS Graphics and scilab. Violation of the GPL means that you do not have the right to distribute that work. Quite simply, each of the download links at [2] becomes a copyright violation and any school, university or linux distribution that passed on copies of GeoGebra to staff/students/users would also be committing a copyright violation. I'm quite sure that is not what was intended. I look forward to discussing this with you further and helping the International GeoGebra Institute and the GeoGebra developers continue to deliver high quality teaching tools. Please let me know how I can help you do this. kind regards Stuart [0] It is also difficult to argue that the properties and the java code can really have separate licences in any case, but that is orthogonal to the problems here. [1] http://cgit.scilab.org/cgit.cgi/scilab/tree/scilab/COPYING [2] http://www.geogebra.org/cms/en/download/ -- Stuart Prescott http://www.nanonanonano.net/ stu...@nanonanonano.net Debian Developer http://www.debian.org/ stu...@debian.org GPG fingerprint BE65 FD1E F4EA 08F3 23D4 3C6D 9FE8 B8CD 71C5 D1A8 GPG fingerprint 90E2 D2C1 AD14 6A1B 7EBB 891D BBC1 7EBB 1396 F2F7
GeoGebra - Dynamic Mathematics for Everyone http://www.geogebra.org/ LICENSE 1) GeoGebra Source Code License: GNU General Public License v3 or later 2) GeoGebra Language Files, Documentation, and Installers License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 or later Note for Non-commercial Users (e.g private, schools, or universities) You may use and distribute GeoGebra free of charge at home, in school and universities under the conditions explained below. Note for Commercial Users (e.g. publishers or online schools) If you would like to use GeoGebra applets, installers, or documentation for commercial purposes and put the resulting work under your copyright (e.g. for books, online courses, or on websites under your own copyright), you can do so by setting up a collaboration agreement with GeoGebra. Please write to off...@geogebra.org for details and we will help you to find a simple and good solution for your specific projects. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) GeoGebra Source Code License GeoGebra's source code is subject to the GNU General Public License (see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/): This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You can find GeoGebra's source code at http://www.geogebra.org/source/program/ If you would like to help with programming, please write to off...@geogebra.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) GeoGebra Language Files, Documentation, and Installers License All GeoGebra language files, documentation files, and installers are subject to the following Creative Commons Attribution - Share Alike License; either version 3.0 of the License, or (at your option) any later version (see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/): You are free to copy, distribute, transmit, and adapt GeoGebra language files and documentation under the following conditions: * Attribution. You must attribute the work (i.e. by linking to http://www.geogebra.org/) * Share Alike. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same, similar or a compatible license. GeoGebra file types that are subject to the above-mentioned license: * GeoGebra language files are ... the user interface language files ("properties files") for all languages used by the GeoGebra application and applets. They are part of every official GeoGebra binary distribution. * GeoGebra documentation files are ... all "GeoGebra Help", "GeoGebra Quickstart" and other documentation files found on the GeoGebra webserver. * GeoGebra installers are ... installation packages that let you install the GeoGebra application and/or documentation files on your system (MS Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, etc.) including GeoGebra WebStart.
GeoGebra - Dynamic Mathematics for Everyone http://www.geogebra.org/ LICENSE You are free to copy, distribute and transmit GeoGebra free of charge for non-commercial purposes (see conditions and details below). PROJECT DIRECTOR * Markus Hohenwarter (Austria & USA 2001-) LEAD DEVELOPER * Michael Borcherds (UK 2007-) DEVELOPERS * Gabor Ancsin (Hungary 2009-) * Mathieu Blossier (France 2008-) * Arnaud Delobelle (UK 2011-) * Calixte Denizet (France 2010-) * Judit Elias (Hungary 2009-) * Arpad Fekete (Hungary 2010-) * Zbynek Konecny (Czech Republic 2010-) * Zoltan Kovacs (Hungary 2010-) * Bernard Parisse (France 2013-) * George Sturr (USA 2009-) * Hans-Petter Ulven (Norway 2008-) CONTRIBUTORS * Balazs Bencze (Romania 2012-) * Lucas Binter (Austria 2011-) * Philipp Birklbauer (Austria 2010-) * Loic Le Coq (France 2006-) * Damien Desfontaines (France 2012-) * Darko Drakulic (Bosnia and Herzegovina 2011-) * Martin Ennemoser (Austria 2011-) * Andre Eriksson (Sweden 2010-) * Victor Franco (Spain 2007) * Claudia Gollner (Austria 2011-) * Alexander Hartl (Austria 2011-) * Guy Hed (Israel 2008-11) * Ralf Hemmecke (Germany 2011) * Rana Issa (Austria 2011-) * Ted Kosan (USA 2008-) * Dominik Kreil (Austria 2011-) * Yves Kreis (Luxembourg 2005-2010) * Corinna Kroehn (Austria 2011-) * Cong Liu (USA 2007-09) * Julian Lettner (Austria 2011) * Matthias Meisinger (Austria 2011-) * Joan Carles Naranjo (Spain 2007) * Eloi Puertas (Spain 2007) * Christoph Reinisch (Austria 2011-) * Johannes Renner (Austria 2011-) * Sergio Arbeo Rodriguez (Spain 2010-) * Christian Schott (Germany 2011-) * Neel Shah (India 2012-) * Florian Sonner (Germany 2008-2012) * Don Sun (USA 2011) * Kai Chung Tam (USA 2011-) * Sara Arjona Tellez (Spain 2011) * Melanie Tomaschko (Austria 2011-) * Thomas Unterthiner (Austria 2010-11) * Amy Varkey (USA 2007-09) * Philipp Weissenbacher (Austria 2007) * Simon Weitzhofer (Austria 2011-) * Quan Yuan (USA 2007-09) * Andy Zhu (USA 2010-) TRANSLATORS * Afrikaans: Rika Grobler (South Africa) * Albanian: Pellumb Klogjeri (Albania), Teuta Iljazi (Macedonia) * Arabic: Brahim Boulakbech, Haboubi Abdessalem, Boulifa Mehdi (Tunisia), Maha Ahmed (Egypt), Kamal Dkhissi (Morocco), Rana Issa (Spain) * Armenian: Gagik Aghekyan (Armenia) * Basque: Gonzalo Elcano Vizcay, Aitzol Lasa, Ander Mariezkurrena (Spain) * Bosnian: Maja Hrbat (Bosnia and Herzegovina) * Bulgarian: Hristo Stoyanov Hristov, Magdalena Petkova (Bulgaria) * Catalan: Jaume Bartroli, Pep Bujosa, Josep Lluis Canadilla, Carlos Gimenez, Antoni Goma, Jorge Sanchez, Roser Sebastian, David Obrador Sala (Spain) * Chinese (Simplified): Chen Xing, Tom King, Ran Tao, Oldnew (China) * Chinese (Traditional): Fu-Kwun Hwang, Chen-Hui Lin, Pegasus Roe, Joe Chen (Taiwan) * Croatian: Sime Suljic, Ela Rac-Marinic-Kragic, Josip Klicinovic, Zeljko Vrabec, Damir Belavic (Croatia) * Czech: Zuzana Bouchalova, Michaela Norulakova, Marketa Tomanova, Marie Pokorna, Jiri Srubar, Roman Hasek (Czech Republic) * Danish: Steen Grode, Martin Thun Klausen (Denmark) * Dutch: Ivan De Winne, Chris Cambre, Jozef Van Remoortere, Roger Van Nieuwenhuyze, Pedro Tytgat, Riggy Van de Wiele, Beatrijs Versichel (Belgium), Anton Geijer, Toon Rekkers (The Netherlands) * English: Markus Hohenwarter, Judith Hohenwarter (Austria), Yves Kreis (Luxembourg), Michael Borcherds (UK) * Estonian: Jane Albre-Andersen (Estonia) * Filipino: Guillermo Bautista, Jr., Jose Abelardo Torio, Erlina Ronda (The Philippines) * Finnish: Juha Leino, Mikko Rahikka, Erkki Luoma-aho, Teemu Hinkula, Tero Pirinen, Vadim Gurkalov, Aleksi Matsi, Jani Hannula (Finland) * French: Noel Lambert (France) * Galician: Debora Pereiro Carbajo, Esperanza Gesteira Losada, Enrique de la Torre Fernandez, Fernando Zacarias Maceiras, Ignacio Larrosa Canestro, Jesus Garcia Otero, Irene Arias Lopez (Spain) * Georgian: Lasha Kokilashvili (Georgia) * German: Markus Hohenwarter, Judith Hohenwarter, Andreas Lindner, Sandra Reichenberger, Christina Biermair, Andrea Duringer, Barbara Kimeswenger, Corinna Kroehn, Kurt Soeser, Johanna Zoechbauer, Alexander Hartl (Austria), Yves Kreis (Luxembourg), Birgit Lachner (Germany) * Greek: Nicholas Mousoulides, Constantinos Christou (Cyprus), Spiros Mavrogiannis, Manolis Koutlis, Fergadiotis Athanasios, Alkeos Souyoul (Greece) * Hebrew: Guy Hed (Israel) * Hindi: Sanjay Gulati, Parth Bhattacharya, Vikrant Dubey (India) * Hungarian: Zsuzsanna Papp-Varga, Andras Hrasko, Peter Csiba, Zoltan Major, Maria Sz. 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Abar, Gerson Pastre de Oliveira, Lisbete Madsen Barbosa, Herminio Borges Neto, Alana Paula Araujo Freitas, Luciana de Lima, Alana Souza de Oliveira (Brazil) * Portuguese (Portugal): Jorge Geraldes, Antonio Ribeiro (Portugal) * Romanian: Alexandra Fortis, Casian Colcher, Valerian Antohe, Moni Ungvari, Valentin Oros, Judit Robu (Romania) * Russian: Anatoly Scherbakov, Beatrice Versichel, Bugaevsky Vladimir (Russia) * Serbian: Djordje Herceg, Dragoslav Herceg (Serbia) * Slovak: Peter Csiba, Iveta Kohanova (Slovakia) * Slovenian: Stanislav Senveter (Slovenia) * Spanish: Liliana Saidon (Argentina) * Swedish: Jonas Enlund (Finland), Thomas Lingefjard, Jonas Hall (Sweden) * Tamil: Kengatharaiyer Sarveswaran, Balanithy Murugaiah, Vasuraj Dhamodharan * Tajik: Yusuf Balkas (Tajikistan) * Thai: Rachaya Srisurichan, Alongkot Maiduang, Donny Passary (Thailand) * Turkish: Erol Karakirik, Mustafa Dogan, Suleyman Cengiz (Turkey) * Ukrainian: Valentyna Pikalova, Valera Rakuta (Ukraine) * Vietnamese: Nguyen Thanh Trung, Quang Nguyen, Nguyen Danh Nam (Vietnam) * Valencian: Pilar Embid Giner, Vicente Balaguer (Spain) * Welsh: Uned Gyfieithu Translation Unit, Prifysgol Bangor University, Gwyn Jones, Sera Roberts (Wales) * Yiddish: Eliezer Niborski (France, Israel) LICENSE GeoGebra Non-Commercial License Agreement The International GeoGebra Institute is a non-profit organization registered in Austria and having its office in Linz, Austria ("we", "our" or "us"). We develop and support the GeoGebra dynamic mathematics software application, including its source code, installers, web applications and services, language files and associated documentation ("GeoGebra" or "the Software"). We operate GeoGebra (and publish its related resources) through our websites located at http://www.geogebra.org/ and http://www.geogebratube.org. The terms of this License form a binding agreement between you, an individual user or non-commercial organization ("you" or "your"), and us regarding your non-commercial use of GeoGebra. By downloading, accessing or otherwise using GeoGebra you indicate your agreement to be bound by these License terms. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS LICENSE IS INTENDED FOR NON-COMMERCIAL USE OF GEOGEBRA ONLY. IF YOU INTEND TO USE GEOGEBRA FOR A COMMERCIAL PURPOSE, PLEASE CONTACT off...@geogebra.org TO ARRANGE A COLLABORATION AGREEMENT WITH US BASED ON OUR COMMERCIAL LICENSE TERMS. 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These License terms were last updated in April 2013. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Libraries used by GeoGebra: * The Apache Commons Mathematics Library, http://commons.apache.org/math/ (Apache Software License) * EPS Graphics, http://epsgraphics.sf.net (GPL) * FreeHEP Java Libraries, http://java.freehep.org (LGPL) * JFugue 2.1 (LGPL), http://www.jfugue.org/jfugue-2.1.zip (LGPL) * JLaTeXMath, http://forge.scilab.org/index.php/p/jlatexmath/ (GPL) * JUNG, http://jung.sourceforge.net (BSD) * OpenCSV, http://opencsv.sourceforge.net/ (Apache 2.0) * Reduce, http://reduce-algebra.sourceforge.net/ (BSD) * Tango Icon Gallery, http://tango.freedesktop.org (Public Domain) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ International GeoGebra Institute Lackenschloessl 23, 5760 Saalfelden, Austria off...@geogebra.org
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