[sane-devel] Canon Scanner P-208 II

[abel deuring]

Am 24.09.2016 um 09:23 schrieb Olaf Meeuwissen:
> 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

<side-issue>
What this page show,, seems to depend on the browser. Firefox told me
that _no_ drivers are available for the P208ii; Chromium gave me an
number of choices, including 32bit and 64bit version for Linux. But
selecting the 64bit version resulted with a message like "not available".
</side-issue>

More comments below.

> 
> 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,
> 

Well… I understand what you are saying, and considering the confusing
terms I fully agree. But the zip file containing Canon's source code
(also available on the mentioned page on www.canon.co.uk) has even more
confusing terms:

The file src/client.c (seems to be the main source file of the backend)
starts with these lines:

> /*  Canon Electronics Scanner Driver for Linux Version 1.00
>  *  Copyright CANON ELECTRONICS INC. 2009
>  *  All Rights Reserved.
>  *
>  *  This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
>  *  it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
>  *  the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
>  *  (at your option) any later version.
>  *
>  *  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
>  *  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
>  *  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
>  *  GNU General Public License for more details.
>  *
>  *  You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
>  *  along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
>  *  Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA
02111-1307  USA
>  */

You _could_ interpret this as an offer to include the file in the main
Sane repository (in the hope that a maintainer can be found), but the
contradicting terms of the usual commerical license are too scary.

There seems to be a strange conflict at Canon between developers who
want to provide a free backend and management.

cheers
Abel