[sane-devel] Canon Scanner P-208 II

[Thomas Geier]

But they link their code against SANE, and SANE is GPL licensed. So 
doesn't this enforce their code to be GPL licensed, independent of what 
they say?


On 24.09.2016 09:23, Olaf Meeuwissen wrote:
> Hi Oliver,
>
> Oliver Jan Krylow writes:
>
>> http://www.canon.de/support/consumer_products/products/scanners/others/imageformula_p-208ii.aspx?type=drivers&language=&os=#disclaimer
> While I do understand a fair bit of German, I wouldn't want to agree to
> any license agreement written in it ;-)
>
> Here's a link that gives an English version for the 32-bit Linux
> driver.  There is no 64-bit driver.
>
>    http://www.canon.co.uk/support/consumer_products/products/scanners/others/imageformula_p-208ii.aspx?type=drivers&language=EN&os=Linux%20%2832-bit%29
>
> Everyone should read the whole license themselves, but it has:
>
>    You are not permitted to: (1) [...] convey, transfer, copy, modify,
>    adapt, merge, translate, convert to another programming language,
>    reverse-engineer, decompile, modify, alter, disassemble or create
>    derivative works based on the whole or any part of the Software [...];
>    (2) reproduce or deal in the Software or any part thereof, or allow
>    any third party to reproduce or deal in the Software or any part
>    thereof, in any way, except as expressly permitted by this Agreement
>    [...].
>
> That looks extremely bleak.  But, near the end, it also says:
>
>    Other license terms: When you install the software you may be required
>    to accept another end user license agreement which corresponds to the
>    specific software you are installing. [...] In the event of any
>    contradiction or inconsistency between the terms of such end user
>    license agreement and these license terms, in respect of the software
>    you are installing, the terms of such end user license agreement shall
>    prevail.
>
> So I decided to have a look.  The source tarball and debian package in
> the zip archive (didn't look at the rpm but assume it to be the same)
> contain a LICENSE-p208II-1.00E.txt file that says, amongst a pile of
> other things you really should read yourself:
>
>    1.GRANT OF LICENSE
>    [...] You may modify the Software only for your own use and reverse
>    engineer the same for debugging such modifications.  [...]
>
>    2.RESTRICTIONS
>    Except as expressly granted or permitted herein, you shall not use,
>    assign, sublicense, sell, rent, lease, loan, convey or transfer to any
>    third party the Software.
>
>    [...]
>    
>    IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR THE USE OF FREE SOFTWARE COMPONENTS BEING
>    LICENSED UNDER GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
>
>    This product "Canon ImageFOMULA Scanner Driver for Linux vx.xx"
>    ("Product") of Canon Electronics Inc. ("Canon") contains the free
>    software components as listed in Schedule 2 of Exhibit attached
>    hereto, and which are licensed under GNU General Public License
>    version 2 published by the Free Software Foundation ("GPL").
>
>    Such free software components are free software; you can redistribute
>    them and/or modify them under the terms of GPL.
>
>    [...]
>
>    Schedule 2
>
>    canondr_com_usb.1.1.0
>    libsane-canondr.so.1.0.0
>    canondr.conf
>
> OK, so those parts are GPL.  Let's have a look then.
>
> I only took a quick look but libsane-canondr.so.1.0.0 basically just
> gets the list of supported options from a configuration file and uses
> SANE's network protocol to "outsource" all of to a stripped binary by
> the name of canondr_backendp208II.
>
> This binary is execl()d from libsane-canondr.so.1.0.0, just as the
> canondr_com_usb.1.1.0 USB communication utility.  canondr_backendp208II
> is handed file descriptors that enable it to use canondr_com_usb.1.1.0.
>
> Source code for libsane-canondr.so.1.0.0 as canondr_com_usb.1.1.0 does
> not contain anything that might be of interest.
>
> Nothing useful for the SANE project but hope this helps anyway,