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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