[License-discuss] TCPDF license: LGPLv3 + a special clause: is this still considered "Open Source"?

[Marc Laporte]

Hi everyone!

The license has changed to vanilla LGPL:

http://tcpdf.git.sourceforge.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=tcpdf/tcpdf;a=blobdiff;f=LICENSE.TXT;h=daf21f7d3eb8748eed5ff70c23ed24729175bce5;hp=26adda0b39f000d80f0dbeff438a91caeafba77f;hb=HEAD;hpb=a39c64ba22843519eb0b6bd114b22a3dd2ef4847

Thanks!

M ;-)


On Thu, Nov 24, 2011 at 1:56 PM, Karl Fogel <kfogel at red-bean.com> wrote:
> Marc Laporte <marc at marclaporte.com> writes:
>>Hi Karl and all!
>>
>>I hope you are well and I am looking for advice, again :-)
>>
>>We are discussing which PDF library to include in Tiki Wiki CMS
>>Groupware (http://tiki.org)
>>
>>TCPDF is an option but there is a special clause
>>
>>It is LGPL v3 +  "Additionally,  YOU CAN'T REMOVE ANY TCPDF COPYRIGHT
>>NOTICE OR LINK FROM THE GENERATED PDF DOCUMENTS."
>>http://www.tcpdf.org/license.php
>>
>>What do you think?
>
> I'd stay away from that.  If your publishing software places
> requirements on the *content* of the material you're publishing,
> something is wrong.  In my opinion, as long as they have this clause,
> TCPDF is not free software, despite their claim that it is.
>
> The clause is also unclear: who exactly is the "YOU"?  The first
> downstream licensee?  What about the second - Nth downstream licensees?
> And can a redistributor of TCPDF remove that clause from the license on
> their redistributions?  (Possibly; after all, the clause doesn't say
> anything about itself, and it's part of a license notice, not of the
> license itself.)
>
> The whole thing is legally ill-crafted as well as unfree, IMHO.  Stay a
> million miles away.  Or, see if you can persuade them that this kind of
> enforced advertising in output is not the way to go.
>
> -Karl
>
>>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>From: Xen
>>Date: Wed, Nov 23, 2011 at 4:57 PM
>>Subject: Re: [Tiki-devel] Slideshow gains pdf export ; ). Wiki next! +
>>PDF Document Data Merger
>>To: Tiki developers
>>
>>
>>On 11/23/2011 09:48 AM, Robert Plummer wrote:
>>> Also, my first choice was TCPDF, but it is HUGE! 11.5 meg. I couldn't
>>> justify making tiki that much larger for simple pdf export.
>>
>>I would also eliminate use of TCPDF for my current needs due to this
>>statement in their license:
>>  YOU CAN'T REMOVE ANY TCPDF COPYRIGHT NOTICE OR LINK FROM THE
>>  GENERATED PDF DOCUMENTS.
>>http://www.tcpdf.org/license.php
>>
>>On the TCPDF examples, I see a large red logo on the top of every pdf....
>>
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>TikiWiki-devel mailing list
>>https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/tikiwiki-devel
> _______________________________________________
> License-discuss mailing list
> License-discuss at opensource.org
> http://projects.opensource.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss



-- 
Marc Laporte

http://MarcLaporte.com
http://Tiki.org/MarcLaporte
http://AvanTech.net