Distribution of a plugin with proprietary code

Posted by Mark Krebs-2 on Nov 02, 2015; 3:34pm
URL: http://imagej.273.s1.nabble.com/Distribution-of-a-plugin-with-proprietary-code-tp5014813.html

Dear ImageJ List,

We seek to distribute an ImageJ/Fiji plugin that makes use of code provided by an instrument manufacturer to translate their proprietary image format data into a form accessible by ImageJ/Fiji.  The manufacturer does not wish to allow open source access of their code, although they will permit access to our plugin as long as their portion can be made inaccessible.

Distribution through a personal update site at Fiji Distribution (http://fiji.sc/Distribution) would seem an attractive option, however the highly recommended option of providing open source code through github would not be possible.

What, then, is the recommended strategy for sharing our plugin?  We are also interested in any information about what would be the best license for distribution, given that the inclusion of a proprietary module would invalidate a GPLv3 approach.

Cheers,
Mark Krebs
The Jackson Laboratory

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