.. _proprietary:

Software X from vendor Y is not compatible with Orthanc
=======================================================

First of all, make sure to read at least the following sections from
the :ref:`faq`:

* :ref:`troubleshooting`
* :ref:`dicom`

Orthanc is `free and open-source software (FOSS)
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open-source_software>`_. FOSS
protects the digital freedoms of its users, and is freely available to
each and every user, for any use. As a backbone application for
medical imaging, the Orthanc project continuously tries and ensures
best possible compatibility with other FOSS software. To put it in
other words, we **provide free support for interfacing Orthanc with
other free and open-source software**. Feel free to discuss
interoperability problems of Orthanc with other FOSS tools on `our
discussion group
<https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/orthanc-users>`_, or to
introduce :ref:`bug reports <support>` detailing how to reproduce your
problem.

Independently of FOSS, there exist many proprietary systems for
medical imaging. Note that proprietary systems might either be paying
or come gratis (also known as freeware). In either case, they restrict
the freedoms of their users and, as a consequence, the Orthanc project
does not have access to a valid license for each software X from any
vendor Y. This implies that we **do not provide free support for
proprietary software (including freeware)**.

If you encounter difficulties while interfacing Orthanc with some
proprietary software, **contact the commercial support of your
supplier**. As Orthanc is free and open-source, the support team of
your supplier can download Orthanc, and can help you solve your
problem. If some fix is needed in our source code, the Orthanc project
will happily integrate it within in the Orthanc mainline, provided the
**patch is explicitly put in the public domain by your vendor**. We
remind the vendors that, if they distribute a patched version of
Orthanc to some of their clients as the result of a commercial
support, the `GPL license
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License>`_ of
Orthanc requires them to **publicly release the source code of this
derived version of Orthanc**.

Finally, if you need to complement the services of your vendor,
consider buying :ref:`professional services from our community
<support-freelancers>`.