Re: gEDA-user: gEDA vs commercial product

[Peter Clifton <pcjc2@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 2007-03-29 at 23:59 +0200, Alessandro Baretta wrote:

> [snip]   But it has features I need and cannot do without: a full 
> standards compliant library of IEC components, a notion of modular components 
> (think of a relay, where the solenoid appears on one page and each of the 
> contacts on a potentially different page).

I looked into this. I presume your meaning IEC 60617 standard symbols. I
looked to see how much this standard would cost to purchase, so "we"
could draw a set of compliant symbols.

Unfortunately, the standard appears only to be available as an on-line
database (which makes sense given the nature of its scope), and its
licensing terms won't permit us to make a symbol library from it and
give it away.

I've contacted someone who attempted to do this in the past, and he was
shut down by the IEC's lawyers. He tells me their position was that even
if he drew the symbols himself, he would not be entitled to distribute
them.

I'm dubious as to the legal issues here. Whether it would be possible to
"clean room" produce a set of "similar" symbols, by having someone
describe the standard symbol, and another person draw it?

All in all, it seems like a pretty pointless standard if we can't make a
free symbol library from it. (Or even one which looks similar, but
doesn't bear the standard's name).


There is an option though... if people want a commercial library of
these symbols, it could be possible to negotiate a deal with the IEC to
get proper access to their database, bulk convert the symbols, and
license the resulting product under commercial, restrictive terms.
Whether they charge a royalty per sale, or expect a hefty up-front fee
would be the make-or-break to that plan.


Perhaps for gEDA and the open-source community's sake (who won't want to
pay for commercial symbols, and certainly can't distribute them), we
should ignore the standard completely - if anyone wants a particular
looking symbol, they can draw it - and contribute it back if they wish.


Does anyone care to comment / speculate how much a standard can cover by
Copyright? Whether symbols looking similar (or the same, even) are in
breach of Copyright? If one symbol on its own isn't, is there some
"literary work" in the database (ie. the list of symbols). It would be
very difficult to reproduce a library of symbols without copying or
referring to that.

Regards,

-- 
Peter Clifton

Electrical Engineering Division,
Engineering Department,
University of Cambridge,
9, JJ Thomson Avenue,
Cambridge
CB3 0FA

Tel: +44 (0)7729 980173 - (No signal in the lab!)




_______________________________________________
geda-user mailing list
geda-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user