POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.off-topic : GPL'ing scene files you share? : Re: GPL'ing scene files you share? Server Time
1 Oct 2024 09:24:54 EDT (-0400)
  Re: GPL'ing scene files you share?  
From: Sabrina Kilian
Date: 27 Mar 2008 09:17:30
Message: <47ebac7a@news.povray.org>
gregjohn wrote:
> Warp, your informed input is valued here, but I think you passed over the
> question on the side of things not being loose enough. Are some scene files now
> "All Rights Reserved"-- you probably shouldn't even use it for IRTC, and
> certainly NOT for a commercial work you sell.  Say I'm talking about the entire
> background shot in a scene. In my mind, this approximates the "closed source
> drivers" that cause a fuss when linux distros get shipped.

Some of the scene files packed with POV-Ray have been "All Rights 
Reserved" for a while. Check the Usage Provisions part of 
http://www.povray.org/povlegal.html

The closed source drivers cause a fuss when shipped with distros because 
they are being distributed. GPL applies when you distribute something, 
not on how a person uses it. The GPL on the kernel says that when you 
distribute it with modifications, those modifications need to be GPL'ed 
as well. Closed source drivers aren't, and can't be made to comply with 
the GPL, and that's the problem. It's more complex then that, really, 
but it doesn't matter to POV-Ray.

POV-Ray doesn't require that the scene code be GPL compatible, and the 
scene and include files shipped with POV-Ray have had different licenses 
for a while. I really doubt that when 4.0 is released that the scene 
code will be restricted in licenses any more then GCC restricts the 
programs you build with it. The scene and include files that have been 
shipped with previous versions will not have their licenses affected by 
the change to how the POV-Ray core is licensed.

> 
> Should we make the 4.0 files more loose?
> 

Completely different issue. This is one that can only really be answered 
by the person who creates each file.


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