Bruno : whatever license iText gets, if you sign a non-disclosure with your employer, he can withhold you from "publishing" whatever you get to know or do during working hours, if he expects it of being of strategic importance to him.
Apart from that : keep an eye on different legal copyright approach between continental Europe and Anglo-saxon countries (read UK/US). In Belgium and other EU countries in principle you're the "de facto" owner of anything you "create", even during working hours. Often employers then try to agree on a transfer of "exploitation rights", but that must be stated explicitely in your contract...and doesn't give them "intellectual property rights". Though they can still ask you to sign a "non-disclosure". Kind of dull and boring, but definitely of importance to anyone writing/publishing code I'm afraid ... Hans -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: woensdag 13 maart 2002 8:45 To: alex Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: merging two libraries alex writes: > I think however it would require a significant > software change which I am not qualified to estimate. Those more familiar > with the FOP source code can evaluate that. I am now working on 'Styles' and 'default fonts', so that you can tell some iText object 'please apply this style'. Once this is finished, I will take a look at FOP. >> > So the questions are: >> > - is the license useable >> > - is the api sufficient for FOP to use > > A look at Sourceforge tells us that the licenCes (bloody Americans can't > spell English words) are > License: GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), Mozilla Public License > 1.1 > > If Bruno is still the copyright holder then he can presumably simply "add" > an Apache-style licence. > I don't feel comfortable using the LGPL for this and don't know about the > Mozilla license. > > Now I can't even find the exact text of these on the sourceforge site but > I know they must be somewhere. > > I suppose I could always just download the software since the licences > will be in the software package, no? You don't need to download the complete package, the licen[c|s]es are on my site: http://www.lowagie.com/iText/lgpl.txt http://www.lowagie.com/iText/MPL-1.1.txt You can find my motivation for using these libraries here: http://www.lowagie.com/iText/faq.html#lgpl If Apache is compatible with MPL, I can indeed add it. But as I stated before: I am going to work in the private sector again soon (for the moment I work for the government). I didn't like some non-disclosure clausules in my contract at my new company, but I signed it because I feel protected by the MPL: if they ask me to write extra functionality for iText, the MPL has priority over my contract (if they'll disagree, I'll quit). I fear that if iText gets an Apache licen[c|s]e, my new company will be able to prevent my from distributing all improvements. kind regards, Bruno --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
