About the license - Githubissues

ThierryHFR / scangearmp2

This project is a sane backend for the canon's scanner, based on the source code of scangearmp2.

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About the license #51

Closed Uenoowl closed 3 years ago

Uenoowl commented 3 years ago

Hi, I am confused by the difference between this repository and others. What's the different between scangearmp2, libmfp2-canon and libcanon-proprio-bin? I noticed that the license of scangearmp2 is GPL with an EXCEPTION, and the EXCEPTION can be removed, which means scangearmp2 should not contains any non-free code because it can be redistributed whit pure GPL if I am right. However, libmfp2-canon said it with only free code, what does it means? Is libmfp2-canon separated from scangearmp2? But how can scangearmp2 contains non-free code since it can be redistributed whit pure GPL? Thanks

ThierryHFR commented 3 years ago

Hi @Uenoowl , The scangearmp2 version of my repository, contains 3 elements: 1- binary libraries where the source code is not provided (under Canon license), it lets us use and redistribute it, without the right to decompile it. 2 - the scangearmp2 GUI in GPL provided by Canon, I have extended these features and migrated it to GTK3. 3 - The code developed by Ordissimo, which is based on Canon's proprietary libraries. This code provides a backend to "sane".

ThierryHFR commented 3 years ago

libcanon-proprio-bin contains the proprietary libraries for Canon, I repackage them but do not make any modification on them. This allows you to use them without having to install the whole GTK2 toolkit, this supposes that you install libmfp2-canon.
libmfp2-canon is the part provided by Ordissimo, which is under GPL license and is a backend of the sane project

Finally, and to clear up any ambiguity, I am the developer of the company Ordissimo with no ties whatsoever to Canon.

Uenoowl commented 3 years ago

Thanks for your explanation!