Vedo: clarifying copyright of data files

[drew-parsons]

Hi, could you clarify the copyright or provenance of the data files in vtkplotter_examples/data ? We need to make sure we're allowed to redistribute them.

grep -Eir '(copyright|©)' * gives a hit on various files apparently not covered by vtkplotter-examples' own MIT licence.

skyscraper.obj and shuttle.obj are the most problematic, since they explicitly indicate copyright "Viewpoint Datalabs International, Inc. Copyright 1996", but with no indication of Licence to redistribute.

Others are:

Copyright needs clarification:

vtkplotter_examples/data/skyscraper.obj:#  Viewpoint Datalabs International, Inc.  Copyright 1996
vtkplotter_examples/data/shuttle.obj:#  Viewpoint Datalabs International, Inc.  Copyright 1996
vtkplotter_examples/data/images/fenics_logo.png
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/images/dog.jpg matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/images/limbs_tc.jpg matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/images/schrod.png matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/images/tropical.jpg matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/images/wave_wiki.png matches

Apparent false positive (binary '©'), or needs clarification:

Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/combxyz.bin matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/frog.jpg matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/combq.bin matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/frog.obj.gz matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/flamingo.3ds matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/origami_train.stl matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/office.binary.vtk matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/snake.xml.gz matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/270_flank.vtk matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/images/airplanes_frames/frame_36_delay-0.08s.jpg matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/images/airplanes_frames/frame_42_delay-0.08s.jpg matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/images/airplanes_frames/frame_43_delay-0.08s.jpg matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/images/airplanes_frames/frame_07_delay-0.08s.jpg matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/images/airplanes_frames/frame_21_delay-0.08s.jpg matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/images/airplanes_frames/frame_30_delay-0.08s.jpg matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/images/wave_wiki.png matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/images/dog.jpg matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/images/vlogo_large.png matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/images/tropical.jpg matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/images/vlogo_tube.png matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/images/limbs_tc.jpg matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/images/vlogo_medium.png matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/images/vlogo_small_dark.png matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/images/schrod.png matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/lego_beam.xml.gz matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/timecourse1d.npy matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/shark.ply matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/fenics.xml.gz matches
Binary file vtkplotter_examples/data/290.xml.gz matches

[marcomusy]

Hi, thanks a lot for drawing attention to this. Of some files I had lost track, many are not even used or necessary, and to stay on the safe side I can easily remove any of the dubious ones.
A few meshes are taken from:
https://people.sc.fsu.edu/~jburkardt/data/obj/obj.html and
https://people.sc.fsu.edu/~jburkardt/data/ply/ply.html with this licensing statement.
I'm not very familiar with the rules there.. is it sufficient to add a link or text file like in the above site?
In summary:

• candidates for removal: skyscraper.obj shuttle.obj shuttle.stl tropical.jpg grasshop.wrl airboat.vtk porsche.ply dog.jpg

• never used, to remove anyway: fenics_logo.png frog.obj.gz frog.jpg origami_train.stl sextant.wrl snake.xml.gz circle.xml.gz lego_beam.xml.gz atc.ply

• wave_wiki.png is a wikipedia snapshot (I guess there should be no issue there but i'm not 100% sure)

• from vtk data repo: combxyz.bin flamingo.3ds combq.bin office.binary.vtk (and various others)

• the remaining ones in the list are generated by me (airplanes*, 290.xml.gz 270_flank.vtk limbs_tc.jpg, timecourse1d.npy, fenics.xml.gz, schrod.png)

[drew-parsons]

For Burkardt's LGPL, I think it would be safe to list your MIT in the LICENSE file under the statement "Unless stated otherwise, all files provided by vtkplotter-examples are licensed under the MIT licence.

Then after your MIT licence, list the special cases, e.g.

Files: vtkplotter_examples/data/beethoven.ply,
vtkplotter_examples/data/mug.ply
vtkplotter_examples/data/shark.ply
Copyright: 2012 John Burkardt
License: LGPL-3
Source: https://people.sc.fsu.edu/~jburkardt/data/ply/ply.html

and provide the full-text LGPL-3 file alongside.

For wikipedia and wave_wiki.png, should probably still acknowledge the licence (and page source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_equation#From_Hooke's_law). With that content it's the information that's important not the file format. They use Creative Commons, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License

Likewise with the vtk files, acknowledge the source (https://gitlab.kitware.com/vtk/vtk/-/tree/master/Testing/Data) and keep a copy of their Licence (BSD-3-clause, https://gitlab.kitware.com/vtk/vtk/-/blob/master/Copyright.txt)

For comparison, you can see how scipy recorded their licence acknowledgements at https://github.com/scipy/scipy/blob/master/LICENSES_bundled.txt (now split separately from LICENSE.txt, previously they had them in one file)

[marcomusy]

Thanks so much, that's extremely useful info! I'll push a new version asap.

[marcomusy]

hi @RizzerOnGitHub would you have a look at the new license file and let me know if it makes sense to you? thanks!

[drew-parsons]

I think that covers it fine.

The Simplified Pixabay licence is short, you could insert it explicitly but probably the link to the source is enough.

Conversely the LGPL is long, you could place the LGPL files at the end, or place the copy of the LGPL at the end.

[marcomusy]

As I've now reduced the nr of files .. it doesn't make much sense to keep two separate repos, so I moved everything back to the main package repo, including the licence file.
Let me know if you think there is still anything missing, and thanks again for your support!

[drew-parsons]

Thanks Marco, it looks ok. I've been waiting for it to get processed in the Debian NEW queue. But your files look fine, safe to keep this bug closed.