<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"><html><head><title>Conditions to distribute Ghostscript in a commercial context</title><!-- $Id: Commprod.htm,v 1.41 2005/10/20 19:46:23 ray Exp $ --><!-- Originally: commprod.txt --><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="gs.css" title="Ghostscript Style"></head> <body><!-- [1.0 begin visible header] ============================================ --> <!-- [1.1 begin headline] ================================================== --> <h1>Conditions on distributing Ghostscript in a commercial context</h1> <!-- [1.1 end headline] ==================================================== --> <!-- [1.2 begin table of contents] ========================================= --> <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> <!-- [1.2 end table of contents] =========================================== --> <!-- [1.3 begin hint] ====================================================== --> <p>This document sets forth the conditions under which Ghostscript may bedistributed in a commercial context: under a written license from <ahref="#Artifex">Artifex Software</a> Inc., the copyright holder's exclusivecommercial licensing partner, or under certain other very limitedconditions. <p>For other information, see the <a href="Readme.htm">Ghostscriptoverview</a>. <!-- [1.3 end hint] ======================================================== --> <!-- [1.0 end visible header] ============================================== --> <hr> <!-- [2.0 begin contents] ================================================== --> <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 AFPLGhostscript or (for older versions) Aladdin Ghostscript; these versions arealways distributed with a license, called the <a href="Public.htm">AladdinFree Public License</a> (also known as the AFPL), which permits redistributionunder certain conditions.  Theseconditions will almost always be met easily by individuals in their personaluse 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, oranything containing or derived from Ghostscript in whole or in part,generally requires a written commercial license from <ahref="#Artifex">Artifex Software Inc.</a>, the sole entity authorized by thecopyright holder to grant such licenses.  More specifically, the AFPLstates: <blockquote>Distribution of the Program or any work based on the Program by acommercial organization to any third party is prohibited if any payment ismade in connection with such distribution, whether directly (as in paymentfor a copy of the Program) or indirectly (as in payment for some servicerelated to the Program, or payment for some product or service thatincludes a copy of the Program "without charge"; these are only examples,and not an exhaustive enumeration of prohibited activities).  However, thefollowing methods of distribution involving payment shall not in and ofthemselves be a violation of this restriction: <dl compact><dt>(i)<dd>Posting the Program on a public access information storage andretrieval service for which a fee is received for retrieving information(such as an on-line service), provided that the fee is notcontent-dependent (i.e., the fee would be the same for retrieving the samevolume of information consisting of random data). <dt>(ii)<dd>Distributing the Program on a CD-ROM, provided that the filescontaining the Program are reproduced entirely and verbatim on such CD-ROM,and provided further that all information on such CD-ROM be redistributablefor non-commercial purposes without charge.</dl></blockquote> <p>The intent of the exception provided in clause (i) is to allow commercialorganizations operating an FTP server or a bulletin board to distributeAFPL Ghostscript freely from it, provided that: <dl compact><dt>(1)<dd>the organization complies with the other provisions of theAFPL, which include among other things a requirement to distribute thefull source code of AFPL Ghostscript and of any derived work, and todistribute the AFPL itself along with AFPL Ghostscript; <dt>(2)<dd>the only charge for downloading AFPL Ghostscript is a chargebased on the distribution service and not one based on the content of theinformation being retrieved (i.e., the charge would be the same forretrieving 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 obtainaccess to the information (possibly by paying a subscription or access feethat is not dependent on or related to purchasing anything else).</dl> <p>Similarly, the exception in clause (ii) is intended to allow inclusion ofAFPL Ghostscript on "freeware" CD-ROMs that contain only material thatis in the public domain, or is freely redistributable provided only that acopyright notice is retained (such as the Independent JPEG Grouplibraries), or is distributed under some other kind of license allowingfree 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 thatincorporates Ghostscript and you do <em>not</em> want to meet theseconditions, you should contact <a href="#Artifex">Artifex Software</a> tofind out about commercial licensing.  Commercial licenses involve a(negotiated) payment, and includes support and other benefits.  These arethe only ways you legally can distribute AFPL Ghostscript or anything containingAFPL Ghostscript: either by distributing Ghostscript under therequirements of the AFPL, or by getting a commercial license from ArtifexSoftware. <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:info@artifex.com">info@artifex.com</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, pleasecontact: <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:raph@artofcode.com">raph@artofcode.com</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 similarto the AFPL in requiring source disclosure, but alsoallows 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 versionsidentified explicitly as GPL or GNU Ghostscript versions; the generic nameGhostscript, when applied to versions above 4.03, refers to AFPLGhostscript, which is governed by the Aladdin Free Public License, not theGPL. <p>The full GPL is included under the name<b><tt>COPYING</tt></b> in the GPL Ghostscript fileset, andcan 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:gnu@gnu.org">gnu@gnu.org</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 thoseunfamiliar 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 mustinclude an offer in writing to provide the source code at no more thanreproduction cost), keep all copyright and other notices, and include theGPL with the copies.  (Note that this allows anyone receiving such a copyto 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; inthis case, (1) and (2) do not apply to the other program, but only to GNUGhostscript.</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 acommercial product, or whether the product has become a "derived work."Normally, combining GPL Ghostscript with another piece of software createsa "derived work"; we consider GPL Ghostscript to be "aggregated" withanother 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 physicallyseparated from the code and documentation for the application. Forelectronic form, it is both necessary and sufficient to put the GNUGhostscript code and documentation in their own directory tree(s). <li> GPL Ghostscript, as delivered with the application, is usableindependently of the application.  More precisely, if a user deletes fromthe computer system all files delivered with the application except thosein 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 requirementfor delivering (or an offer to deliver) source code.</ul> <p>Regarding this last point, the GPL clearly intends that if the distributoronly offers to provide the GPL Ghostscript source code (as opposed toactually distributing the source code with every copy of the application),then they must deliver the source code in a timely way to anyonerequesting it. <p>The GPL makes it clear that if someone receives GPL Ghostscript only inits GPL-licensed form, they only have a right to distribute it if theycomply with the GPL.  artofcode LLC, as the copyright holder, takesthis requirement very seriously, and will, if necessary, take legal actionto ensure that anyone distributing GPL Ghostscript with the GPL complieswith the conditions set forth above. <!-- [2.0 end contents] ==================================================== --> <!-- [3.0 begin visible trailer] =========================================== --><hr> <p><small>Copyright &copy; 1996-2004 artofcode LLC. All rights reserved.</small> <p><small>This file is part of AFPL Ghostscript.  See the <ahref="Public.htm">Aladdin Free Public License</a> (the "License") for fulldetails of the terms of using, copying, modifying, and redistributing AFPLGhostscript.</small> <p><small>Ghostscript version 8.53, 20 October 2005  <!-- [3.0 end visible trailer] ============================================= --> </body></html>