[Fribidi-discuss] License question to the project owners

[Paulo Soares]

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Behdad Esfahbod [SMTP:behdad at bamdad.org]
> Sent:	Sunday, July 13, 2003 17:12
> To:	Paulo Soares
> Cc:	'fribidi-discuss at lists.sourceforge.net'
> Subject:	Re: [Fribidi-discuss] License question to the project owners
> 
> On Fri, 11 Jul 2003, Paulo Soares wrote:
> 
> > I'm an iText (www.lowagie.com/iText) developer. iText is a java library
> for
> > the generation of PDF documents that has a dual license, LGPL or
> MPL/LGPL.
> 
> Nice project, and better news that you are considering R2L 
> scripts too!
> 
> > I added some time ago support for bidi text using
> java.awt.font.TextLayout
> > to get the order levels. This solution works very well but requires the
> awt
> > toolkit and it's the only feature in iText that requires it. Many unix
> > servers where the library is installed on don't have a X server and use
> java
> > 1.3 or lower not being able to benefit from the headless option in java
> 1.4.
> > Making it work requires PJA or Xvfb but that's always a source of
> another
> > batch of problems.
> >
> > I decided to look around for an awt independent solution to get the
> order
> > levels and fribidi came on top of my list not only for conformance
> reasons
> > but also because it has a clean architecture, or at least an
> architecture
> > that I can understand.
> 
> You have made the right choice!  By the way, what are you going 
> to do for Arabic Shaping?  I can provide you the code for that 
> too.  If you have enough time to wait for a few months, or if you 
> are going to do the port again, you will get Arabic shaping in 
> the same architecture of FriBidi too.
> 
	I first used the Arabic Shaping from ICU but it didn't support
Farsi. I'm now using a modified shaping engine from Pango. It would be nice
to have all the RTL from a single source.
>  
> > My problems start with the dual licensing of iText. Either I say
> somewhere
> > that if you want Arabic without using awt you are restricted to LGPL or,
> and
> > that's my request, I get some kind of exception from you for this
> partial
> > port to java and the MPL/LGPL license can still be applied even for the
> > fribidi part.
> 
> What I have found for now is that you can distribute the fribidi 
> port for java in another library under LGPL, and use it in your 
> iText software with any license.
> 
	Maybe there's really not an issue after all. The iText license is
LGPL or MPL/LGPL. MPL/LGPL is read as MPL and LGPL, the two must go
together. The code can be used under the MPL but new contributions must
still be made under the dual licensing. In other words, new contributions
must still have the option for LGPL.

	The other option is to deliver everything together with the warning
that Arabic and Hebrew require classes under a different license. What I
don't want to do is to distribute two libraries.

	Best Regards,
	Paulo Soares

> > Best Regards,
> > Paulo Soares 
> 
> -- 
> Behdad Esfahbod		22 Tir 1382, 2003 Jul 13 
> http://behdad.org/	[Finger for Geek Code]
> 
> If you do a job too well, you'll get stuck with it.
>