Dear Steve et al,
Given that FSL has been released under GPL in the first place, it must be
very tricky to avoid now violating the original GPL with this new licence.
I have always assumed that once GPL, always GPL, according to GPL. How can
you disclaim GPL? Especially given that it states something like, any
software derived from this software must be distributed under GPL. This is,
in part, why GPL is as it is. This should be a strong argument, possibly
legally binding, against the university trying to impose their copyright on
material that has already been released under the GPL. Often academics who
want to work on a piece of software already released under GPL can do so
without objection from the pen pushers in the copyright office. Your legals
might want to check whether you can be taken to court over violation of GPL.
It may be a fine point, but if you can argue that FSL 3.0 is a totally
different software package, you might not violate GPL. On the other hand,
if it is a derivative of previous GPL versions of FSL, surely it must be
released, developed and distributed under GPL. The GPL is often, but should
not, be used or considered as a light weight licence, it is very powerful.
In your case, it would be interesting to know if the GPL prevents you from
retracting the GPL on your code once it has been released as such. It would
also be interesting to know whether Sensor Systems have distributed FSL
under GPL within MEDx.
I suspect that you all prefer to get on with the business of fMRI/MRI
analysis and this arose out of hassles from the legals dept. of Oxford.
Maybe they have already considered the issues raised above, maybe not.
Anyhow, thanks enourmously for providing "free" access to your code.
Take care, Darren
----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephen Smith" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, October 08, 2002 11:50 PM
Subject: Re: FSL 3
> Hi - yep, we wanted to leave the licence as simple as possible whilst
> keeping the university happy about people not making huge amounts of money
> without talking to them first.
>
> > That brings me to the next question, is this legal under the license:
> > Suppose I am from a rival software company and I download FSL, run it on
my
> > test data and compare the output to that of my own company. I do not in
any
> > way incorporate FSL into my new product, nor do I disclose the result of
> > the testing to any of my client. (The latter to me is unethical)
> >
> > My interpretation of the new license is this is not legal because of
item
> > (2)" use of the Software or any derivative of it for research with the
> > final aim of developing software products for sale or license to a third
> > party...".
>
> Well - it doesn't seem likely that this kind of usage and testing would
> worry anyone; the licence is really trying to cover (without getting too
> tedious and over-explicit) more black-and-white cases like generating huge
> revenue from commercially running the software.
>
> > As I understand it, the spirit of the old license is to (i) promote wide
> > use of the software and to (ii)encourage innovation in the field of
medical
> > imaging. Hence, the scenerio I described above does not violate the
spirit
> > of the license (ii), eventhough advantages is obviously mine alone). I
> > recognize the need to protect Oxford's reputation/property and that
Oxford
> > should be able to exploit commercial advantage on FSL. However, the new
> > license seems to prevent even the use of software for "comparison and
> > evaluation" purpose which in my opinion, stifle innovation.
>
> Indeed - your understanding of the licence is correct, and no, things like
> comparison and evaluation are fine under this licence - no problem. You
> are not talking about cases where there is direct financial return; there
> is nothing to worry about.
>
> Thanks, Steve.
>
> Stephen M. Smith
> Head of Image Analysis, FMRIB
>
> Oxford University Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain
> John Radcliffe Hospital, Headington, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK
> +44 (0) 1865 222726 (fax 222717)
>
> [log in to unmask] http://www.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/~steve
>
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