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

[Karl Fogel]

Marc Laporte <marc at marclaporte.com> writes:
>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!

Very glad to hear it, and congratulations! :-)

Best,
-Karl

>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