[Freegis-list] ecw binaries for linux

[Frank Warmerdam]

On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 19:14:20 +0100, benedetto porfidia <porfidia at apat.it> wrote:
> Frank,
> do these new binaries have the same limitation in size for file
> compression,
> as the windows ones provided by free ermapper compressor?

Benedetto, 

The ECW SDK provides three licensing options.  One is described
briefly like this:

   Use of the ECW SDK with Unlimited Decompressing and Unlimited 
   Compression for applications licensed under a GNU General Public 
   style license ("GPL") is governed by the "ECW SDK PUBLIC USE 
   LICENSE AGREEMENT".

So, the short answer is that you have unlimited compression now
as well as decompression. 

However, a review of the detailed "public use license agreement" 
shows that it still does not qualify as free software under the 
open source definition.  In particular, the license forbids distributing
directly modified copies of the source (though you can distribute the
raw original, and patches).  The license also forbids using the code
for implementation of "server" software or to support modified 
(incompatible) versions of the ECW format.  

I would add that ER Mapper also holds patents for which they only
grant free permission to use as long as they are used to support 
the ECW format as they have defined it. 

I for one am still excited about finally having ECW support on linux,
but I must confess that this announcement likely didn't belong on this
list since it isn't free software in the strict sense of the term.

Even in practical terms, I believe the restriction on server software
means it would be illegal to use the ECW SDK under the public
license with MapServer.   I would encourage folks wanting to use
the software to read over the license agreement carefully.  I also
realize I neglected to include the license agreement in the package
I posted.  I have updated it on my website, now including the 
license.txt and SRCREADME.TXT the source package came with.

Best regards,
-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | Geospatial Programmer for Rent