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| author | Sebastien Jodogne <s.jodogne@gmail.com> |
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| date | Thu, 29 Apr 2021 12:41:31 +0200 |
| parents | 53992cb7fa7f |
| children | 41bae819d80b |
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.. _licensing: Licensing of the Orthanc ecosystem ================================== .. contents:: Philosophy ---------- The objectives of the Orthanc ecosystem is to share technical knowledge about :ref:`DICOM <dicom-guide>`, to build a consistent platform for developing medical imaging software, and to foster scientific collaborations in medical imaging by subscribing to the `open-science paradigm <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_science>`__. To this end, Orthanc is provided as free and open-source software to the benefit of the worldwide community of medical imaging. In order to support this objective of global knowledge sharing, the Orthanc project enforces reciprocity. If someone finds Orthanc useful to her academic work or to her business, the community of medical imaging should gain an advantage from this use by enlarging the knowledge base. This virtuous circle guarantees the fact that Orthanc will be developed in a sustainable way in the long-term, to the benefit of all stakeholders. Predatory behaviors should be prevented, while preserving the freedoms of the users of Orthanc, including the commercial uses. According to this philosophy, the University Hospital of Liège decided to release the Orthanc ecosystem under the `GPLv3+ license <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html>`__ in 2012. The GPL is a strong copyleft license that is recognized worldwide, and that is designed to enforce reciprocity. As Orthanc is lightweight and designed for Web applications and for sharing medical images over Internet, it has been quickly deployed on cloud platforms in order to host large amount of data. Orthanc considers this use as very legitimate, for instance for scientific purpose (think of open-data databases) or for societal needs (think of teleradiology platforms in developing countries). Unfortunately, the GPL does not protect from predatory commercial behaviors over cloud platforms because of the so-called "`ASP loophole <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Affero_General_Public_License>`__", that does not enforce derived versions of a free and open-source software running on a server to be given back to the community. For this reason, the plugins that provide scalability-related or cloud-related features (for instance the :ref:`PostgreSQL <postgresql>` and :ref:`Web viewer <webviewer>` plugins that are necessary for Web applications distributed at a large scale) were released under the stronger `AGPLv3+ licence <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-affero-gpl.en.html>`__. This license protects the community of medical imaging by ensuring that the features included in Orthanc instances running in remote servers are publicly available as well. Guidelines ---------- Over the years, it was observed that people fear the use of GPL and AGPL licenses, that are wrongly considered as preventing commercial uses. This is most often a wrong assumption, given that the Orthanc server is a standalone executable, not a software library. The following table provides a simple summary of the most common situations, and indicates whether the use is **accepted ("Yes"), forbidden ("No"), or restricted ("Dual license")**: +-----------------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | Mode of distribution of the third-party system, or of the third-party plugin/script | +-----------------------------------------------------+---------------+-------+--------+--------------+------------------------+-------------------+ | Usage of the Orthanc ecosystem | Permissive | GPLv3 | AGPLv3 | Internal use | Proprietary software | Proprietary cloud | | | (MIT, BSD, | | | | distributed to clients | platform or Web | | | Apache...) | | | | | portal | +=====================================================+===============+=======+========+==============+========================+===================+ | Using Orthanc as such, even if some AGPL-licensed | N/A | N/A | N/A | Yes | Yes | Yes | | plugin is installed | | | | | | | +-----------------------------------------------------+---------------+-------+--------+--------------+------------------------+-------------------+ | Calling Orthanc from a third-party system | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | (using REST API or DICOM protocol), even if some | | | | | | | | AGPL-licensed plugin is installed | | | | | | | +-----------------------------------------------------+---------------+-------+--------+--------------+------------------------+-------------------+ | Creating a :ref:`C/C++ plugin <plugins>`, | | | | | | | | creating a :ref:`Lua script <lua>`, or | | | | | | | | creating a :ref:`Python plugin <python-plugin>`. | | | | | | | | 2 possible cases: | | | | | | | +----+------------------------------------------------+---------------+-------+--------+--------------+------------------------+-------------------+ | | Case 1: No AGPL-licensed plugin is in use | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Dual license | Yes | +----+------------------------------------------------+---------------+-------+--------+--------------+------------------------+-------------------+ | | Case 2: Some AGPL-licensed plugin is in use | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Dual license | Dual license | +----+------------------------------------------------+---------------+-------+--------+--------------+------------------------+-------------------+ | Using a derived version of the GPL-licensed | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Dual license | Yes | | code of Orthanc, or using a derived version of | | | | | | | | some GPL-licensed plugin, or reusing their original | | | | | | | | code in a third-party system | | | | | | | +-----------------------------------------------------+---------------+-------+--------+--------------+------------------------+-------------------+ | Using a derived version of some AGPL-licensed | No | No | Yes | Yes | Dual license | Dual license | | plugin, or reusing its original code in a | | | | | | | | third-party system | | | | | | | +-----------------------------------------------------+---------------+-------+--------+--------------+------------------------+-------------------+ | **For viewers**: Using a derived version of the | No | No | Yes | Yes | Dual license | Dual license | | :ref:`Orthanc Web Viewer <webviewer>`, of the | | | | | | | | :ref:`Osimis Web Viewer <osimis_webviewer>`, of the | | | | | | | | :ref:`Stone Web Viewer <stone>`, or of the sample | | | | | | | | applications of Stone of Orthanc (AGPL license) | | | | | | | +-----------------------------------------------------+---------------+-------+--------+--------------+------------------------+-------------------+ .. raw:: html <p align="center"> <a href="mailto:info@osimis.io?subject=Request for a dual license"> <b>Click here to request a dual license</b> </a> </p> **Notes:** * The wording "third-party system" is very broad, as it encompasses many possibilities. It can for instance be a Web application, a heavyweight desktop application, an automated script, or more generally any system that takes advantage of Orthanc as a service in its global architecture. * If your use case falls in a "**Dual license**" cell, please get in touch with `Osimis <https://www.osimis.io/>`__, the commercial partner of the Orthanc project that is the only entity entitled to grant a `license exception <https://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/selling-exceptions>`__ to your company for the Orthanc core and its :ref:`associated official plugins <plugins-official>`. * If you reuse code from Orthanc or one of its associated plugins, you must mention the copyright of the Orthanc project. * An Orthanc plugin cannot be licensed under a permissive license (MIT, BSD, Apache...) because it cannot run independently of the Orthanc SDK, which implies that the plugin and the Orthanc core form a single combined program, which in turn means that the plugin should be licensed under GPLv3 by `copyleft <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft>`__ contamination. Check out the `license compatibility matrix on Wikipedia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/License_compatibility#Compatibility_of_FOSS_licenses>`__. Here is the corresponding entry about this topic in the `GPL FAQ <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.en.html#GPLPlugins>`__: *"If the main program dynamically links plug-ins, and they make function calls to each other and share data structures, we believe they form a single combined program, which must be treated as an extension of both the main program and the plug-ins. [...] If the main program and the plugins are a single combined program then this means you must license the plug-in under the GPL or a GPL-compatible free software license and distribute it with source code in a GPL-compliant way."* * If you deal with medical applications in Europe, note that Osimis sells **CE-approved** versions of a Web viewer plugin. * You are kindly invited to cite the `reference paper about Orthanc <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10278-018-0082-y>`__ in your scientific work. * This is our own simplified, technical interpretation of the GPLv3+ and AGPLv3+ in the very specific context of Orthanc. It is not intended to be a complete guide to copyleft licensing. Please get in touch with the `Free Software Foundation <https://www.fsf.org/>`__ for more legal information. .. _cla: Contributing to the code of Orthanc ----------------------------------- Contributed vs. internal code ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ It is important to make the distinction between contributed code and internal code: * **Contributed code** refers to source code that takes advantage of Orthanc and/or that extends Orthanc, such as new :ref:`plugins <plugins>`, :ref:`Lua scripts <lua>`, or any higher-level application that uses the :ref:`REST API <rest>` of Orthanc. This code can live outside of the official source repositories of the Orthanc ecosystem. External contributors can distribute such contributed code on whatever platform they prefer, in a way that is fully uncoupled from the Orthanc project, and keep the intellectual property of their developments. Such contributors are however kindly invited to index their contributions in the `dedicated repository on GitHub <https://github.com/jodogne/OrthancContributed>`__, and contributed plugins should also be indexed in the :ref:`Orthanc Book <plugins-contributed>`. * **Internal code** refers to source code that only makes sense if embedded within the Orthanc core or within one of the official plugins. This includes new features and bugfixes. The way to contribute to the internal code of the Orthanc ecosystem is described in the sections below. **Important:** You should always favor the :ref:`creation of a new plugin <creating-plugins>` over modifications to the internal code (see below)! Contributor License Agreement ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ It is necessary for the Orthanc project to make sure that the internal code of Orthanc can be interfaced with proprietary systems, as those are still unfortunately everywhere in the healthcare market. This forces us to require all the intellectual property over the source code of Orthanc to be centralized, with the University Hospital of Liège together with the Osimis company acting as the official guardians of the whole Orthanc ecosystem. This centralization also enables the dual licensing scheme described above, which in turn allows Osimis to collect money from the industry in order to fund further free and open-source development of the Orthanc ecosystem to the benefit of the worldwide community of medical imaging, according to a virtuous cycle. As a consequence, before any code can be accepted into the official repositories of Orthanc, the individual code contributors must sign a `Contributor License Agreement (CLA) <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contributor_License_Agreement>`__. Here is the procedure: 1. Download the individual CLA (ICLA) form from the `Orthanc homepage <https://www.orthanc-server.com/resources/2019-02-12-IndividualContributorLicenseAgreementOrthanc.pdf>`__. 2. Print the document, then write down your signed initials on pages 1 and 2, and sign page 3. 3. Return a scanned copy of the document to e-mail ``orthanc-legal@osimis.io``. 4. Wait for confirmation from the Osimis company. **Important:** This form is only valid for individual contributors acting as physical persons. If your company wishes to become contributor as a juridical person, please request a Corporate CLA at the same e-mail address: ``orthanc-legal@osimis.io``. .. _submitting_code: Submitting code ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Once the CLA onboarding process has succeeded, use `Mercurial <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercurial>`__ to fork the official repository of interest. All the repositories are centralized on our `self-hosted Mercurial server <https://hg.orthanc-server.com/>`__. A :ref:`dedicated page <repositories>` explains how to submit :ref:`simple patches <hg-patch>` or :ref:`full branches <hg-bundle>`. **Some words of warning:** * It is your responsibility to make sure that you have the intellectual property over all the source code you commit into Orthanc. * In the case of a doubt wrt. a potential contribution, please discuss it on the `Orthanc Users <https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/orthanc-users>`__ discussion group before starting the actual development.