Re: [Matplotlib-users] [matplotlib-devel] License, freetype

[CAB <ca...@ya...>]

Hi, Gents,
Many thanks for your thoughtful responses!  Freetype is indeed available under a BSD-like licensse.  But when I tried to install freetype on my Windows system using the binary provided from GnuWin32, it attempts to force me to accept the GPL3, which I cannot.  Freetype's link to another binary supplied by GTK+ is broken.  So, I guess I have two choices; compile freetype from the source, or download something like Anaconda, which I'd rather not do because I have Python already installed.

If you have any other ideas, I'd be happy to hear them.
Best,Chad


      From: Joe Kington <jof...@gm...>
 To: Paul Hobson <pmh...@gm...> 
Cc: CAB <ca...@ya...>; Matplotlib Development List <mat...@li...>; Matplotlib Users <mat...@li...>
 Sent: Friday, February 17, 2017 5:03 PM
 Subject: Re: [matplotlib-devel] [Matplotlib-users] License, freetype
   
Well, if Freetype were only distributed under the GPL, you couldn't distribute matplotlib in binary form without providing the source code.

However, Freetype is distributed under more than one license.  (see: https://www.freetype.org/license.html )

Because it's distributed under a BSD-style license in addition to the GPL, it can be distributed in binary form, subject to an accreditation clause: http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/freetype/freetype2.git/tree/docs/FTL.TXT

In the past, I have gotten approval from corporate lawyers at a very large company to use freetype (and matplotlib) in an application that was being distributed in binary form.  The dual-licensing of freetype was key in that particular case.

Or that's my take on it, anyway.  I'm not a Lawyer, so don't consider this legal advice in any way.
Cheers!
-Joe

On Fri, Feb 17, 2017 at 4:52 PM, Paul Hobson <pmh...@gm...> wrote:

Chad,
My recollections is that matplotlib doesn't distribute the source code to FreeType, it only uses it as a dependency. As such, MPL is in the clear with its more permissive licensing.-Paul
On Fri, Feb 17, 2017 at 12:45 PM, CAB <ca...@ya...> wrote:

Hi, All,
I just went to install matplotlib version 2.0.0, and it has a dependency called "freetype". This software appears to be licensed under GPL3.  My reading of that latter license is that, if someone wanted to distribute a compiled version of a program requiring matplotlib, that entire program would fall under the GPL3 license.  I'm sure that would be a non-starter for many, many projects.

Does anyone have any takes on this?

Chad

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