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From: kellow@leahy.cheg.nd.edu (John Kellow)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.visualization
Subject: Re: apE
Message-ID: <1991Feb1.220412.12896@news.nd.edu>
Date: 1 Feb 91 22:04:12 GMT
References: <91027.193421PFKEB@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU> <43550@ut-emx.uucp>
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In article <43550@ut-emx.uucp> jonabbey@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Jonathan Abbey) writes:
>In article <91027.193421PFKEB@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU>
>PFKEB@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU (Paul Kunz) writes:
>>
>>  This is a survey to those funded by DoE.
>>
>>  Do you have or  have ordered apE?
>>
>>  If yes, then how long did you legal department take to sign  the
>>license?
>>
>>  I'm just checking if my own legal department is off scale or just
>>normal.
>
>We don't have an explicit legal department, and we are not DoE, but
>apE's software license does contain some hairy clauses.  For one thing,
>it states that all employees who use apE must indicate in writing that
>they have read and agree to comply with the terms of the license.
>
>Arranging that might be giving your folks some trouble.
>
>-- 
>
>Jonathan Abbey (512) 472-2052        \                           (512) 835-3081
>jonabbey@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu           \        broccol@csdfx8a.arlut.utexas.edu
>The University of Texas at Austin      \          Applied Research Laboratories


Having just read and signed the agreement, I have to agree that it does
contain some pretty hairy clauses.  My question is how is this going
to affect software that you write using the apE libraries?  Are you
allowed to share your modules or are they encumbered by the license?
What about porting it to a new platform?  It looks like a lot of thought
and effort was put into making apE portable and extensible.  It could become
the GNU Emacs of visualization, but after reading that license agreement
I wonder if that will ever happen.

On  related note, is there a mailing list specifically for discussing
the use and programming of apE? (or is that the kind of thing that this group
is for, but so far the traffic in this group seems pretty light).


John Kellow
kellow@ndcheg.cheg.nd.edu