I got the following email back from Michael. So with the clarification
below that it is not allowed to use the JPEG-2000 part of the code for
non-standards based work make it non DFSG free? If so is there anyway to
make it DFSG free and still uphold their wishes as stated below?
Thanks,
Chris Cheney
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From: Michael Adams <mdadams@ece.uvic.ca>
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To: Chris Cheney <ccheney@cheney.cx>
Subject: Re: JasPer licensing wrt Debian Linux
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On Fri, 22 Aug 2003, Chris Cheney wrote:
> I am the maintainer of KDE for Debian Linux and it came to my attention
> that KDE 3.2 adds support for JasPer. However, it has been previously[0]
> determined that JasPer does not meet the DFSG guidelines[1] for free
> software so cannot be included as is in the main part of Debian. The
> particular part that the -legal people have a problem with is section F.
> Is it possible for you to strike this section of the license?
Dear Chris:
The license has been revised slightly in recent months, but I have not
released a new version of the software with this revised license. Clause F
reads as follows in the revised version of the license:
F. The JPEG-2000 codec implementation included in the JasPer software
is for use only in hardware or software products that are compliant
with ISO/IEC 15444-1 (i.e., JPEG-2000 Part 1). No license or right to
this codec implementation is granted for products that do not comply
with ISO/IEC 15444-1.
There are two reasons for the above clause:
1) The technology used in the JPEG-2000 standard is covered by
patents. The patent holders (for which there are several) are only
allowing their patented technology to be used for implementations
that are compliant with the standard. For this reason, if anyone
uses a hacked non-JPEG-2000-compliant version of JasPer's
JPEG-2000 codec in their software, they would be breaking the law.
As an extra level of legal protection for the contributors to
JasPer, we explicitly disallow ILLEGAL patent-infringing use of the
software. [Incidentally, to the best of my knowledge, none of the
JasPer contributors hold patents on core JPEG-2000 technologies.]
2) We do not want hacked non-JPEG-2000-compliant versions of JasPer
being used, since this would cause major interoperability problems,
totally defeating the purpose of having an international
image-compression standard in the first place.
If your lawyers are worried, they really ought not to be. We (i.e.,
the JasPer contributors) do not have any secret evil motivations behind
Clause F in the JasPer license. This clause is only to prevent ILLEGAL
non-interoperable use of the JasPer software.
The original wording of Clause F did not make clear that JasPer can be
used to build non-JPEG-2000 products. For example, you can remove the
JPEG-2000 codec support from JasPer and create a product without
JPEG-2000 support without violating the terms of the JasPer license.
What this clause does say is: IF YOU USE THE JPEG-2000 CODEC IN JASPER,
then you must not introduce changes to the codec that would cause it
to be NONCOMPLIANT with the JPEG-2000 standard. If you did this, you
would be infringing on at least several patents.
With the above said, is the JasPer license really not not good
enough for your purposes? I mean, why would KDE want to use JasPer's
JPEG-2000 support in order to create a mutant non-interoperable
JPEG-2000 clone that infringes on at least several patents?
Sincerely,
Michael
---
Michael Adams, Assistant Professor
Dept. of Elec. and Comp. Engineering, University of Victoria
P.O. Box 3055 STN CSC, Victoria, BC, V8W 3P6, CANADA
Tel: +1 250 721 6025, Fax: +1 250 721 6052, Office: EOW 403
E-mail: mdadams@ece.uvic.ca, Web: www.ece.uvic.ca/~mdadams
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