[sane-devel] Misleading license information for Image Scan v3

[Olaf Meeuwissen]

Some two months ago I wrote:

> Yesterday, I wrote:
>
>> Dear Sir/Madam,
>>
>> While doing some user support on the sane-devel mailing list, I noticed
>> that your download site is providing misleading license information for
>> Image Scan v3.
>>
>> The license information[1] for Image Scan v3 only mentions the GNU
>> General Public License, version 3.  While this is correct for the Source
>> File Downloads[2], it is downright misleading for the binary Package
>> Download[3].  The binary package download for many models includes one
>> or more non-free plugins.  So far, I am aware of one plugin to enable a
>> device's network scan functionality and another for OCR functionality
>> (likely to be device independent).
>>
>> Please change the license information to tell the truth or make the
>> plugins available under the terms of the GNU General Public License,
>> version 3.
>>
>>  [1] http://download.ebz.epson.net/dsc/du/02/eula/global/LINUX_EN.html
>>  [2] http://support.epson.net/linux/src/scanner/imagescanv3/
>>  [3] http://support.epson.net/linux/en/imagescanv3.php
>
> I have since downloaded the debian bundle and taken a look at the
> licenses.  FTR, I did neither install nor use the software.  I simply
> extracted the archive and the debian packages' filesystem tarball to
> have a look at the licenses.
>
> The network plugin is licensed under the AVASYS PUBLIC LICENSE and the
> OCR plugin is covered by the SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION SOFTWARE LICENSE
> AGREEMENT.  Both licenses are mentioned for Image Scan! for Linux and
> definitely non-free and GPL incompatible.  I understand that Image Scan
> v3 runs these plugins in separate processes to avoid a GPL violation.
>
> I assume that you just forgot to add these for Image Scan v3 when you
> added the plugins to the "bundle".  You can easily fix that by adding
> them to the list of licenses for Image Scan v3 on [1].
>
> # I and many others would much prefer to see these plugins released as
> # Free Software, though.

I just checked again today but *nothing* seems to have changed.  Could
you please fix the misleading licensing information for Image Scan v3?

BTW, I have Bcc:d a few mail addresses that I found in the Debian binary
packaging files.  If those people could bring this up as well that would
be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
-- 
Olaf Meeuwissen, LPIC-2            FSF Associate Member since 2004-01-27
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