> >So I wouldn't get too hopeful.  I just wish, though, they would
> >back off on the povlegal.doc to allow the innovation which
> >so enriched the selection of 3.0 options to continue with
> >3.1 .  The current document basically makes all patches
> >impractical to implement legally.  All that remains is the
> >independent development of GUI extensions.
> 
> Not true at all, and if I contributed to that impression, I apologize.  The
> current POVLegal adds only one new restriction to development, and for very
> good reason.  That restriction is that you can't develop new _interfaces_ to
> POV.  That shoots down some development projects that might be helpful to
> the POV community at large, such as my plugin proposal, but it doesn't affect
> anything else that I know about.  And I'm still free to develop plugins; I
> just can't distribute them without getting them into the official version.
> At least that's how I read the rules.  And this is far from a dead issue;
> Chris Young has promised me that the POV Team will revive the plugin debate
> after 3.1 is on the shelves.  (In return, I've promised him not to rouse
> the rabble about plugins, so keep those cards and letters, folks!)

From POVLEGAL.doc :

  A "custom version" is defined as a fully functional version of POV-
  Ray with all existing features intact. ANY OTHER USE OF ANY POV-
  Ray SOURCE CODE IS EXPRESSLY PROHIBITED. The POV-Team does not
  license source code for any use outside POV-Ray. No portion of the
  POV-Ray source code may be incorporated into another program
  unless it is clearly a custom version of POV-Ray that includes all
  of the basic functions of POV-Ray.

"all the basic functions of POV-Ray"?  What does that mean?
Functionality is difficult to analyze.  In a strict sense,
it represents the set of outputs from a set of inputs.
Yet if this isn't changed, the patch does nothing.  In a legal
sense, error function generation could be considered "functionality",
for example, so any new keywords could be violations, as they replace
these error messages with some other behavior.  Or, changing the
function of any current keywords would almost certainly violate
this.


  You must provide all POV-Ray support for all users who use your
  custom version. You must provide information so that user may
  contact you for support for your custom version. The POV-Ray Team
  is not obligated to provide you or your users any technical
  support.

I would prefer legal clarification of what "all POV-Ray support"
means.  If it means that all support which will be provided is
provided by me, and thus if none is provided at some point that
is okay (100% of zero is zero), then I have no problem.  But this
is too vague for my comfort level if I had any fear this would be
pursued.

-- 
http://www.flash.net/~djconnel/

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