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Dear
Maxim,
Congratulations on
your product release! It is quite gratifying to see another company taking
PyMOL seriously as a development platform,
despite its shortcomings. Quantum is an impressive early example of one of
the many types of things the unrestricted open-source PyMOL source code is
intended to enable. In fact, I am astounded by all that your company has
accomplished independently using PyMOL, with nary a word from Moscow!
However, one
condition from the PyMOL open-source (top-level) LICENSE file seems to have been
inadvertently overlooked (note text between asterisks): ?Permission
to use, copy, modify, distribute, and distribute modified versions of this
software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby
granted, **** provided that the above copyright notice appears in all copies and
that both the copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting
documentation, ****?
Please remedy this
(presumed unintentional) breach of the Copyright terms as soon as practical by
(1) enclosing a copy of PyMOL?s original LICENSE file in all product
distributions (buried in a Quantum subdirectory is fine), and by (2) including
the text of the PyMOL copyright and permission notices somewhere in the
supporting documentation (fine as an appendix at the end of the manual).
Prompt action will surely alleviate concerns that have been raised regarding the
legal status of the Quantum product vis-à-vis PyMOL.
Just to reiterate,
so that everyone is clear:
In addition to
development of new free and open-source tools, it is also my desire to
see new independent commercial
products built on the PyMOL foundation. PyMOL is BSD-ish rather than
GPL-ish for precisely that reason, and I do hope that Quantum and other like
efforts will prove successful and have numerous positive impacts on the
field. However, it is of critical import that such efforts rest on a solid
foundation of compliance with the very minimal legal requirements associated
with derivative use of the PyMOL open-source code.
If ever there is
any doubt regarding terms, the best way to achieve certainty is to check in with
me in advance of product release (before it becomes a public matter).
Another reason to talk to me early on is that, in some cases, I may even be available to help with the
development work.
Thank you and
everyone else for compliance with the PyMOL open-source terms!
Cheers,
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