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

[Olaf Meeuwissen]

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.

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