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1 .. _licensing:
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2
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3
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4 Licensing of the Orthanc ecosystem
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5 ==================================
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6
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7 .. contents::
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8
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9
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10 Philosophy
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11 ----------
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12
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13 The objectives of the Orthanc ecosystem is to share technical
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14 knowledge about :ref:`DICOM <dicom-guide>`, to build a consistent
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15 platform for developing medical imaging software, and to foster
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16 scientific collaborations in medical imaging by subscribing to the
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17 `open-science paradigm
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18 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_science>`__. To this end, Orthanc
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19 is provided as free and open-source software to the benefit of the
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20 worldwide community of medical imaging.
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21
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22 In order to support this objective of global knowledge sharing, the
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23 Orthanc project enforces reciprocity. If someone finds Orthanc useful
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24 to her academic work or to her business, the community of medical
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25 imaging should gain an advantage from this use by enlarging the
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26 knowledge base. This virtuous circle guarantees the fact that Orthanc
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27 will be developed in a sustainable way in the long-term, to the
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28 benefit of all stakeholders. Predatory behaviors should be prevented,
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29 while preserving the freedoms of the users of Orthanc, including the
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30 commercial uses.
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31
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32 According to this philosophy, the University Hospital of Liège decided
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33 to release the Orthanc ecosystem under the `GPLv3+ license
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34 <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html>`__ in 2012. The GPL is
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35 a strong copyleft license that is recognized worldwide, and that is
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36 designed to enforce reciprocity.
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37
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38 As Orthanc is lightweight and designed for Web applications and for
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39 sharing medical images over Internet, it has been quickly deployed on
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40 cloud platforms in order to host large amount of data. Orthanc
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41 considers this use as very legitimate, for instance for scientific
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42 purpose (think of open-data databases) or for societal needs (think of
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43 teleradiology platforms in developing countries). Unfortunately, the
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44 GPL does not protect from predatory commercial behaviors over cloud
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45 platforms because of the so-called "`ASP loophole
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46 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Affero_General_Public_License>`__",
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47 that does not enforce modified versions of a free and open-source
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48 software running on a server to be given back to the community.
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49
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50 For this reason, the plugins that provide scalability-related or
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51 cloud-related features (for instance the :ref:`PostgreSQL
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52 <postgresql>` and :ref:`Web viewer <webviewer>` plugins that are
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53 necessary for Web applications distributed at a large scale) were
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54 released under the stronger `AGPLv3+ licence
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55 <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-affero-gpl.en.html>`__.
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56 This license protects the community of medical imaging by ensuring
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57 that the features included in Orthanc instances running in remote
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58 servers are publicly available as well.
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59
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60
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61 Guidelines
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62 ----------
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63
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64 Over the years, it was observed that people fear the use of GPL and
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65 AGPL licenses, that are wrongly considered as preventing commercial
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66 uses. This is most often a wrong assumption, given that the Orthanc
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67 server is a standalone executable, not a software library.
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68
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69 The following table provides a simple summary of the most common
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70 situations, and indicates whether the use is accepted ("Yes"),
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71 prevented ("No"), or restricted ("Dual licensing"):
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72
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73 +-----------------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
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74 | | Mode of distribution of the third-party system, or of the third-party plugin/script |
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75 +-----------------------------------------------------+---------------+-------+--------+--------------+------------------------+-------------------+
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76 | Usage of the Orthanc ecosystem | Permissive | GPLv3 | AGPLv3 | Internal use | Proprietary software | Proprietary cloud |
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77 | | (MIT, BSD, | | | | distributed to clients | platform |
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78 | | Apache2...) | | | | | |
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79 +=====================================================+===============+=======+========+==============+========================+===================+
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80 | Using Orthanc as such, even if some AGPL-licensed | N/A | N/A | N/A | Yes | Yes | Yes |
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81 | plugin is installed | | | | | | |
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82 +-----------------------------------------------------+---------------+-------+--------+--------------+------------------------+-------------------+
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83 | Calling Orthanc from a third-party application | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
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84 | (using REST API or DICOM protocol), even if some | | | | | | |
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85 | AGPL-licensed plugin is installed | | | | | | |
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86 +-----------------------------------------------------+---------------+-------+--------+--------------+------------------------+-------------------+
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87 | Creating an Orthanc plugin or a Lua script, that | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Dual licensing | Yes |
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88 | is hosted by an Orthanc server where no | | | | | | |
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89 | AGPL-licensed plugin is installed | | | | | | |
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90 +-----------------------------------------------------+---------------+-------+--------+--------------+------------------------+-------------------+
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91 | Creating an Orthanc plugin or a Lua script, that | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Dual licensing | Dual licensing |
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92 | is hosted by an Orthanc server where some | | | | | | |
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93 | AGPL-licensed plugin is installed | | | | | | |
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94 +-----------------------------------------------------+---------------+-------+--------+--------------+------------------------+-------------------+
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95 | Using a modified version of the GPL-licensed | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Dual licensing | Yes |
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96 | code of Orthanc, or using a modified version of | | | | | | |
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97 | some GPL-licensed plugin, or reusing their original | | | | | | |
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98 | code in a third-party system | | | | | | |
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99 +-----------------------------------------------------+---------------+-------+--------+--------------+------------------------+-------------------+
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100 | Using a modified version of some AGPL-licensed | No | No | Yes | Yes | Dual licensing | Dual licensing |
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101 | plugin, or reusing its original code in a | | | | | | |
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102 | third-party system | | | | | | |
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103 +-----------------------------------------------------+---------------+-------+--------+--------------+------------------------+-------------------+
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104 | Using the :ref:`Stone of Orthanc <stone>` library | No | No | Yes | Yes | Dual licensing | Dual licensing |
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105 +-----------------------------------------------------+---------------+-------+--------+--------------+------------------------+-------------------+
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106
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201
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107 **Notes:**
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108
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109 * The wording "third-party system" is very broad, as it encompasses
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110 many possibilities. It can for instance be a Web application, a
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111 heavyweight desktop application, an automated script, or more
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112 generally any system that takes advantage of Orthanc as a service in
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113 its global architecture.
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114
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115 * If your use case falls in a "**Dual licensing**" cell, please get in
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116 touch with `Osimis <http://osimis.io/>`__, the commercial partner of
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117 the Orthanc project that is the only entity entitled to grant a
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118 `license exception
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119 <https://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/selling-exceptions>`__ to your
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120 company for the Orthanc core and its :ref:`associated official
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121 plugins <plugins-official>`.
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122
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123 * If you reuse code from Orthanc or one of its associated plugins, you
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124 must mention the copyright of the Orthanc project.
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125
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126 * An Orthanc plugin cannot be licensed under a permissive license
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127 (MIT, BSD, Apache2...) because it must interface with the Orthanc
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128 SDK that is licensed under GPLv3. Check out the `license
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129 compatibility matrix on Wikipedia
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130 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/License_compatibility#Compatibility_of_FOSS_licenses>`__.
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131
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132 * If you deal with medical applications in Europe, note that Osimis
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133 sells **CE-approved** versions of a Web viewer plugin.
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134
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135 * You are kindly invited to cite the `reference paper about Orthanc
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136 <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10278-018-0082-y>`__
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137 in your scientific work.
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138
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139 * This is our own simplified, technical interpretation of the GPLv3+
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140 and AGPLv3+ in the very specific context of Orthanc. It is not
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141 intended to be a complete guide to copyleft licensing. Please get in
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142 touch with the `Free Software Foundation <https://www.fsf.org/>`__
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143 for more legal information.
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144
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145
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146 .. _cla:
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147
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148 Contributing to the code of Orthanc
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149 -----------------------------------
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150
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151 Contributed vs. internal code
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152 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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153
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154 It is important to make the distinction between contributed code and
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155 internal code:
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156
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157 * **Contributed code** refers to source code that takes advantage of
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158 Orthanc and/or that extends Orthanc, such as new :ref:`plugins
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159 <plugins>`, :ref:`Lua scripts <lua>`, or any higher-level
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160 application that uses the :ref:`REST API <rest>` of Orthanc. This
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161 code can live outside of the official source repositories of the
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162 Orthanc ecosystem. External contributors can distribute such
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163 contributed code on whatever platform they prefer, in a way that is
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164 fully uncoupled from the Orthanc project, and keep the intellectual
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165 property of their developments. Such contributors are however kindly
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166 invited to index their contributions in the `dedicated repository on
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167 GitHub <https://github.com/jodogne/OrthancContributed>`__.
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168
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169 * **Internal code** refers to source code that only makes sense if
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170 embedded within the Orthanc core or within one of the official
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171 plugins. This includes new features and bugfixes. The way to
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172 contribute to the internal code of the Orthanc ecosystem is
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173 described in the sections below.
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174
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175
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176
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177 Contributor License Agreement
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178 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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179
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180 It is necessary for the Orthanc project to make sure that the internal
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181 code of Orthanc can be interfaced with proprietary systems, as those
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182 are still unfortunately everywhere in the healthcare market. This
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183 forces us to require all the intellectual property over the source
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184 code of Orthanc to be centralized, with the University Hospital of
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185 Liège together with the Osimis company acting as the official
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186 guardians of the whole Orthanc ecosystem. This centralization also
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187 enables the dual licensing scheme described above, which in turn
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188 allows Osimis to collect money from the industry in order to fund
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189 further free and open-source development of the Orthanc ecosystem to
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190 the benefit of the worldwide community of medical imaging, according
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191 to a virtuous cycle.
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192
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193 As a consequence, before any code can be accepted into the official
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194 repositories of Orthanc, the individual code contributors must sign a
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195 `Contributor License Agreement (CLA)
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196 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contributor_License_Agreement>`__. Here
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197 is the procedure:
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198
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199 1. Download the individual CLA (ICLA) form from the `Orthanc homepage
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200 <https://www.orthanc-server.com/resources/2019-02-12-IndividualContributorLicenseAgreementOrthanc.pdf>`__.
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201
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202 2. Print the document, then write down your signed initials on pages 1
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203 and 2, and sign page 3.
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204
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205 3. Return a scanned copy of the document to e-mail ``orthanc-legal@osimis.io``.
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206
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207 4. Wait for confirmation from the Osimis company.
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208
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209 **Important:** This form is only valid for individual contributors
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210 acting as physical persons. If your company wishes to become
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211 contributor as a juridical person, please request a Corporate CLA at
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212 the same e-mail address: ``orthanc-legal@osimis.io``.
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213
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214
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215 Submitting code
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216 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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217
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218 Once the CLA onboarding process has succeeded, use `Mercurial
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219 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercurial>`__ to fork the official
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220 repository of interest from BitBucket. Here are the location of those
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221 repositories:
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222
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223 * The `Orthanc server <https://bitbucket.org/sjodogne/orthanc/src>`__.
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224
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225 * The `official plugins <https://bitbucket.org/sjodogne/>`__ originating from the University Hospital of Liège.
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226
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227 * The `official plugins <https://bitbucket.org/osimis/>`__ originating from Osimis.
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228
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229 Once you have finished modifying the code in your forked repository,
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230 issue a `pull request
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231 <https://confluence.atlassian.com/bitbucket/tutorial-learn-about-bitbucket-pull-requests-774243385.html>`__.
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232
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233 **Some words of warning:**
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234
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235 * Please stick to the :ref:`coding style <coding-style>` of Orthanc.
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236
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237 * It is your responsibility to make sure that you have the
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238 intellectual property over all the source code you commit into
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239 Orthanc.
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240
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241 * All the contributions will be carefully reviewed. Some contributions
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242 may be modified, yet even rejected. A rejection might for instance
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243 occur if your contribution does not match the Orthanc roadmap, does
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244 not meet our high-quality code standards, or breaks backward
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245 compatibility. Please be sure that we warmly welcome and appreciate
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246 your contributions, but be aware of the fact that we are quite
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247 strict, and that the review process might take time.
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248
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249 * In the case of a doubt wrt. a potential contribution, please discuss
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250 it on the `Orthanc Users
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251 <https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/orthanc-users>`__
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252 discussion group before starting the actual development.
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