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<title>Conditions to distribute Ghostscript in a commercial context</title>
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<h1>Conditions on distributing Ghostscript in a commercial context</h1>
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<h2>Table of contents</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="#Free_version">The use of the public-access "free" version of Ghostscript</a>
<li><a href="#GPL">The GNU General Public License (GPL)</a>
</ul>
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<p>
This document sets forth the conditions under which Ghostscript may be
distributed in a commercial context: under a written license from <a
href="#Artifex">Artifex Software</a> Inc., the copyright holder's exclusive
commercial licensing partner, or under certain other very limited
conditions.
<p>For other information, see the <a href="Readme.htm">Ghostscript
overview</a>.
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<h2><a name="Free_version"></a>Use of the public-access "free"
version of Ghostscript</h2>
<p>
Ghostscript is a copyrighted work whose copyright is owned by artofcode LLC.
Some versions of Ghostscript are distributed freely under the name AFPL
Ghostscript or (for older versions) Aladdin Ghostscript; these versions are
always distributed with a license, called the <a href="Public.htm">Aladdin
Free Public License</a> (also known as the AFPL), which permits redistribution
under certain conditions. These
conditions will almost always be met easily by individuals in their personal
use of AFPL Ghostscript. AFPL Ghostscript may be <em>used</em> freely,
including by commercial entities for evaluation or unsupported internal use.
However, <em>distribution</em> for commercial purposes of Ghostscript, or
anything containing or derived from Ghostscript in whole or in part,
generally requires a written commercial license from <a
href="#Artifex">Artifex Software Inc.</a>, the sole entity authorized by the
copyright holder to grant such licenses. More specifically, the AFPL
states:
<blockquote>
Distribution of the Program or any work based on the Program by a
commercial organization to any third party is prohibited if any payment is
made in connection with such distribution, whether directly (as in payment
for a copy of the Program) or indirectly (as in payment for some service
related to the Program, or payment for some product or service that
includes a copy of the Program "without charge"; these are only examples,
and not an exhaustive enumeration of prohibited activities). However, the
following methods of distribution involving payment shall not in and of
themselves be a violation of this restriction:
<dl compact>
<dt>(i)<dd>Posting the Program on a public access information storage and
retrieval service for which a fee is received for retrieving information
(such as an on-line service), provided that the fee is not
content-dependent (i.e., the fee would be the same for retrieving the same
volume of information consisting of random data).
<dt>(ii)<dd>Distributing the Program on a CD-ROM, provided that the files
containing the Program are reproduced entirely and verbatim on such CD-ROM,
and provided further that all information on such CD-ROM be redistributable
for non-commercial purposes without charge.
</dl>
</blockquote>
<p>
The intent of the exception provided in clause (i) is to allow commercial
organizations operating an FTP server or a bulletin board to distribute
AFPL Ghostscript freely from it, provided that:
<dl compact>
<dt>(1)<dd>the organization complies with the other provisions of the
AFPL, which include among other things a requirement to distribute the
full source code of AFPL Ghostscript and of any derived work, and to
distribute the AFPL itself along with AFPL Ghostscript;
<dt>(2)<dd>the only charge for downloading AFPL Ghostscript is a charge
based on the distribution service and not one based on the content of the
information being retrieved (i.e., the charge would be the same for
retrieving a random collection of bits of the same size);
<dt>(3)<dd>the server or BBS is accessible to the general public, i.e.,
the phone number or IP address is not kept secret, and anyone may obtain
access to the information (possibly by paying a subscription or access fee
that is not dependent on or related to purchasing anything else).
</dl>
<p>
Similarly, the exception in clause (ii) is intended to allow inclusion of
AFPL Ghostscript on "freeware" CD-ROMs that contain only material that
is in the public domain, or is freely redistributable provided only that a
copyright notice is retained (such as the Independent JPEG Group
libraries), or is distributed under some other kind of license allowing
free redistribution such as the GNU
<a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">General Public License</a>.
<p>
If you want to distribute software in a commercial context that
incorporates Ghostscript and you do <em>not</em> want to meet these
conditions, you should contact <a href="#Artifex">Artifex Software</a> to
find out about commercial licensing. Commercial licenses involve a
(negotiated) payment, and includes support and other benefits. These are
the only ways you legally can distribute AFPL Ghostscript or anything containing
AFPL Ghostscript: either by distributing Ghostscript under the
requirements of the AFPL, or by getting a commercial license from Artifex
Software.
<p>
<a name="Artifex"></a>For commercial licensing, please contact:
<blockquote><address>
Licensing Information<br>
Artifex Software Inc.<br>
454 Las Gallinas Ave., suite 108<br>
San Rafael, CA 94903 U.S.A.<br>
+1-415-492-9861 telephone<br>
+1-415-492-9862 fax<br>
<a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a><br>
<a href="http://www.artifex.com/">http://www.artifex.com/</a>
</address></blockquote>
<p>
If you have questions about the information in this document, please
contact:
<blockquote><address>
artofcode LLC<br>
940 Tyler St. Studio 6<br>
Benicia CA 94510 U.S.A.<br>
+1-707-746-6398 fax<br>
<a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a><br>
<a href="http://www.ghostscript.com/">http://www.ghostscript.com/</a>
</address></blockquote>
<h2><a name="GPL"></a>The GNU General Public License (GPL)</h2>
<p>
Older versions of Ghostscript (usually the previous major release of AFPL Ghostscript)
are distributed with a license called the GNU
<a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">General Public License</a>
(also known as the "GNU License", the "GPL", or "copyleft"), which is similar
to the AFPL in requiring source disclosure, but also
allows distribution with commercial products under certain conditions.
These versions are identified as "GPL Ghostscript" or
"GNU Ghostscript." The remainder of this section applies only to versions
identified explicitly as GPL or GNU Ghostscript versions; the generic name
Ghostscript, when applied to versions above 4.03, refers to AFPL
Ghostscript, which is governed by the Aladdin Free Public License, not the
GPL.
<p>
The full GPL is included under the name
<b><tt>COPYING</tt></b> in the GPL Ghostscript fileset, and
can also be obtained directly from the Free Software Foundation:
<blockquote><address><a name="FSF_address"></a>
Free Software Foundation, Inc. (FSF)<br>
59 Temple Place, Suite 330<br>
Boston, MA 02111-1307 U.S.A.<br>
+1-617-542-5942 telephone<br>
+1-617-542-2652 fax (including Japan):<br>
<a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a><br>
<a href="http://www.gnu.org/">http://www.gnu.org/</a>
</address></blockquote>
<p>
The GPL gotten directly from the FSF or the contents of the
<b><tt>COPYING</tt></b> file are authoritative, but for those
unfamiliar with the GPL, we now summarize its provisions.
<dl compact>
<dt>1.<dd>Anyone may copy and distribute GPL Ghostscript (both source
and object code), but they must distribute the source code as well as
the object code (or, if they distribute only the object code, they must
include an offer in writing to provide the source code at no more than
reproduction cost), keep all copyright and other notices, and include the
GPL with the copies. (Note that this allows anyone receiving such a copy
to distribute it freely as well.)
<dt>2.<dd>Anyone may modify GPL Ghostscript, but the provisions of (1)
apply to modified or derived works as well.
<dt>3.<dd>GPL Ghostscript may be "aggregated" with another program; in
this case, (1) and (2) do not apply to the other program, but only to GNU
Ghostscript.
</dl>
<p>
Provision (2) effectively prevents the development of proprietary commercial
products that incorporate GPL Ghostscript without a commercial license
as a part, since these are "derived works" in the legal sense.
<p>
Questions have arisen at times in particular cases regarding provision (3)
as to whether GPL Ghostscript is "aggregated" with other parts of a
commercial product, or whether the product has become a "derived work."
Normally, combining GPL Ghostscript with another piece of software
creates
a "derived work"; we consider GPL Ghostscript to be "aggregated" with
another piece of software, which we will refer to as "the application",
only if all of the following conditions are met:
<ul>
<li> The code and documentation for GPL Ghostscript are physically
separated from the code and documentation for the application. For
electronic form, it is both necessary and sufficient to put the GNU
Ghostscript code and documentation in their own directory tree(s).
<li> GPL Ghostscript, as delivered with the application, is usable
independently of the application. More precisely, if a user deletes from
the computer system all files delivered with the application except those
in the GPL Ghostscript directories, the user will still be able to use
GPL Ghostscript as described in GPL Ghostscript's documentation. Among
other things, this requires that GPL Ghostscript not call any routines
in the application, and not require any data or other files supplied as
part of the application.
<li> The application calls GPL Ghostscript in a way that allows an
ordinary user to substitute another program for GPL Ghostscript.
(Typically this requires use of a shell script or batch file, or a
system call like "<b><tt>exec</tt></b>".) More precisely, if the user
deletes from the computer system all the files in the GPL Ghostscript
directories, and replaces the GPL Ghostscript executable with another
program with the same name and conforming to the same documentation, the
application will continue to work with it. One implication of this is
that the GPL Ghostscript documentation must specify all properties of
GPL Ghostscript on which the application relies; for example, if GPL
Ghostscript has been modified by the addition of command line switches
or language elements such as new operators, the documentation must
describe any such additions that the application uses.
<li> The conditions of the GNU GPL are met with respect to GPL Ghostscript,
including the requirement for propagation of the GPL and the requirement
for delivering (or an offer to deliver) source code.
</ul>
<p>
Regarding this last point, the GPL clearly intends that if the distributor
only offers to provide the GPL Ghostscript source code (as opposed to
actually distributing the source code with every copy of the application),
then they must deliver the source code in a timely way to anyone
requesting it.
<p>
The GPL makes it clear that if someone receives GPL Ghostscript only in
its GPL-licensed form, they only have a right to distribute it if they
comply with the GPL. artofcode LLC, as the copyright holder, takes
this requirement very seriously, and will, if necessary, take legal action
to ensure that anyone distributing GPL Ghostscript with the GPL complies
with the conditions set forth above.
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<p>
<small>Copyright © 1996-2004 artofcode LLC. All rights reserved.</small>
<p>
<small>This file is part of AFPL Ghostscript. See the <a
href="Public.htm">Aladdin Free Public License</a> (the "License") for full
details of the terms of using, copying, modifying, and redistributing AFPL
Ghostscript.</small>
<p>
<small>Ghostscript version 8.53, 20 October 2005
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