VMD-L Mailing List

From: Roland Schulz (roland_at_utk.edu)
Date: Wed Jul 08 2009 - 09:56:08 CDT

Hi John,

thanks a lot!

Roland

On Mon, Jul 6, 2009 at 10:45 PM, John Stone <johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu> wrote:

>
> Hi,
> To get the ball rolling, I have tagged the key plugin related
> VMD source files (PluginMgr.* vmddlopen.* ResizeArray.h MolFilePlugin.*)
> as being provided under the UIUC open source license:
> *
> * LICENSE:
> * UIUC Open Source License
> * http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/plugins/pluginlicense.html
> *
>
> That should allow you to get started using the code without further delay.
>
> Once I get the VMD 1.8.7 release completed, I would be happy to work with
> you on making the code easier to incorporate into other packages. It
> should
> be pretty straightforward already, but undoubtably it's a bit VMD-centric
> at present.
>
> Cheers,
> John Stone
> vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu
>
> On Mon, Jul 06, 2009 at 05:19:52AM -0400, Roland Schulz wrote:
> > On Sun, Jul 5, 2009 at 9:14 PM, John Stone <johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu> wrote:
> >
> > Hi,
> > On Sat, Jul 04, 2009 at 09:13:37AM -0400, Roland Schulz wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > is our understanding correct that the 10% clause in VMD is not
> GPL
> > > compatible?
> >
> > It is compatible in that you're free to use it for anything you
> want,
> > but, that said, you would not be able to re-license it as GPL code.
> > So while you're free to use it, it would remain governed under its
> > original license, just as code using the BSD license, UIUC open
> source
> > license, and other licenses remain under their original license.
> >
> > We don't want to re-license in the sense of removing the current
> license
> > but adding GPL as an additional license, so that the whole package can
> be
> > used under one license. (see below for additional option)
> >
> > My understand is that the UIUC license allows that. Is that correct?
> FSF
> > lists the UIUC as GPL compatible.
> >
> > My understanding is that the VMD license does not allow that, because
> the
> > 10% clause can't be combined with GPL. Since the right of the licensee
> to
> > combine any software is in conflict with the licensor right to
> prohibit
> > combining packaged resulting to more than 10%.
> >
> >
> > Also, it is true that if ten different people each borrowed 10% of
> the
> > code,
> > that you'd be violating the original license to incorporate those
> > ten different 10%s into a single code base. I would not see a
> problem
> > with us making modules like vmddlopen.[c] Plugin*.[Ch] etc available
> > under the UIUC open source license (BSD derivative) however, if that
> > would make it easier for you to use the VMD plugin APIs in other
> > packages.
> >
> > I think this would help us a lot.
> >
> >
> > There's nothing particularly magical or proprietary in
> > the plugin-related source code in VMD, so I would be happy to
> > accomodate this if it made things easier for you and others to use
> > the VMD plugin APIs.
> >
> > That would be great.
> >
> >
> > I have already been planning on reengineering things a bit so that
> > the interesting parts of PluginMgr.* were migrated to the plugin
> > source tree and compiled into the static molfile_plugin.a so
> > that the same plugin management code would be shared by
> > VMD, NAMD, psfgen, cionize, and any other tools that wanted to
> > make significant use of plugins, particularly the dynamically
> > loaded shared library variety of plugins, which is the only case
> > that's very tricky.
> >
> > That would be an alternative. My current plan (proposed by Axel
> Kohlmeyer
> > - thanks!) is to integrate the PluginMgr in the source. Thus the VMD
> > header or libraries would not be needed at compile time. And if the
> > Plugins (as shared libraries) would be available at run-time
> additional
> > formats could be read.
> > If the PluginMgr would be part of the static library, it would be
> needed
> > at compile time. Thus it might be little bit less convenient for the
> user,
> > but only barely so.
> >
> > So in case you would prefer not to change the license for PuginMgr to
> UIUC
> > license or would prefer us not to distribute it in our source, we
> could
> > use the compile time option.
> >
> > If this would address your needs, let me know and I would be happy
> > to begin working on this with you.
> >
> > Yes both option would be great. Let me know which one you prefer.
> >
> > Thanks a lot
> >
> > Roland
> >
> >
> > Cheers,
> > John Stone
> > vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu
> >
> > >
> > > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > > From: Erik Lindahl <lindahl_at_cbr.su.se>
> > >
> > > 1) We need to be able to distribute the code as GPL/LGPL
> (instead
> > of a
> > > combination of licenses). The 10% clause probably doesn't fly
> with
> > this,
> > > since the one could imagine 10 different people copy 10% each,
> > distribute
> > > as GPL, then somebody else (who gets it under strict GPL, where
> > there
> > > cannot be side clauses) merges it and has the original code
> under
> > GPL.
> > > ------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > If so, is there a chance that you could release a PluginMgr
> > equivalent
> > > example code under a GPL compatible license (e.g. University of
> > Illinois
> > > Open Source License). That would allow other GPL software
> packages
> > to
> > > easily use the VMD plugins.
> > >
> > > Roland
> > >
> > > --
> > > ORNL/UT Center for Molecular Biophysics cmb.ornl.gov
> > > 865-241-1537, ORNL PO BOX 2008 MS6309
> >
> > --
> > NIH Resource for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
> > Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
> > University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
> > Email: johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu Phone: 217-244-3349
> > WWW: http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/> Fax: 217-244-6078
> >
> > --
> > ORNL/UT Center for Molecular Biophysics cmb.ornl.gov
> > 865-241-1537, ORNL PO BOX 2008 MS6309
>
> --
> NIH Resource for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
> Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
> University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
> Email: johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu Phone: 217-244-3349
> WWW: http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/ <http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/%7Ejohns/>
> Fax: 217-244-6078
> 

-- 
ORNL/UT Center for Molecular Biophysics cmb.ornl.gov
865-241-1537, ORNL PO BOX 2008 MS6309