Posted by
ctrueden on
Nov 02, 2015; 6:08pm
URL: http://imagej.273.s1.nabble.com/Distribution-of-a-plugin-with-proprietary-code-tp5014813p5014818.html
Hi Mark,
It sounds like your plugin's code can be open source—just not the code of
the instrument manufacturer. Presumably the manufacturer is OK with you
distributing a binary of their library, along with your plugin binary?
Note that ImageJ update sites do not typically ship any source code—only
binaries.
Regarding licensing, in general see
http://choosealicense.com/. If you want
permissive (e.g., ISC or MIT), there is no conflict. If you want copyleft,
you can use the GPLv3—you would just need to include an exception clause;
see:
*
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.en.html#GPLIncompatibleLibs*
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.en.html#FSWithNFLibsBut note that this is not 100% firm legal ground, and I Am Not A Lawyer.
Regards,
Curtis
On Mon, Nov 2, 2015 at 9:34 AM, Mark Krebs <
[hidden email]> wrote:
> 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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