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Conditions on distributing Ghostscript in a commercial context

Table of contents

• The use of the public-access "free" version of Ghostscript
• The GNU General Public License (GPL)

This document sets forth the conditions under which Ghostscript may be distributed in a commercial context: under a written license from Artifex Software Inc., the copyright holder's exclusive commercial licensing partner, or under certain other very limited conditions.

For other information, see the Ghostscript overview.

Use of the public-access "free" version of Ghostscript

Ghostscript is a copyrighted work whose copyright is owned by artofcode LLC. Some versions of Ghostscript are distributed freely under the name AFPL Ghostscript or (for older versions) Aladdin Ghostscript; these versions are always distributed with a license, called the Aladdin Free Public License (also known as the AFPL), which permits redistribution under certain conditions. These conditions will almost always be met easily by individuals in their personal use of AFPL Ghostscript. AFPL Ghostscript may be used freely, including by commercial entities for evaluation or unsupported internal use. However, distribution for commercial purposes of Ghostscript, or anything containing or derived from Ghostscript in whole or in part, generally requires a written commercial license from Artifex Software Inc., the sole entity authorized by the copyright holder to grant such licenses. More specifically, the AFPL states:

Distribution of the Program or any work based on the Program by a commercial organization to any third party is prohibited if any payment is made in connection with such distribution, whether directly (as in payment for a copy of the Program) or indirectly (as in payment for some service related to the Program, or payment for some product or service that includes a copy of the Program "without charge"; these are only examples, and not an exhaustive enumeration of prohibited activities). However, the following methods of distribution involving payment shall not in and of themselves be a violation of this restriction:

(i)

Posting the Program on a public access information storage and retrieval service for which a fee is received for retrieving information (such as an on-line service), provided that the fee is not content-dependent (i.e., the fee would be the same for retrieving the same volume of information consisting of random data).

(ii)

Distributing the Program on a CD-ROM, provided that the files containing the Program are reproduced entirely and verbatim on such CD-ROM, and provided further that all information on such CD-ROM be redistributable for non-commercial purposes without charge.

The intent of the exception provided in clause (i) is to allow commercial organizations operating an FTP server or a bulletin board to distribute AFPL Ghostscript freely from it, provided that:

(1)

the organization complies with the other provisions of the AFPL, which include among other things a requirement to distribute the full source code of AFPL Ghostscript and of any derived work, and to distribute the AFPL itself along with AFPL Ghostscript;

(2)

the only charge for downloading AFPL Ghostscript is a charge based on the distribution service and not one based on the content of the information being retrieved (i.e., the charge would be the same for retrieving a random collection of bits of the same size);

(3)

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 obtain access to the information (possibly by paying a subscription or access fee that is not dependent on or related to purchasing anything else).

Similarly, the exception in clause (ii) is intended to allow inclusion of AFPL Ghostscript on "freeware" CD-ROMs that contain only material that is in the public domain, or is freely redistributable provided only that a copyright notice is retained (such as the Independent JPEG Group libraries), or is distributed under some other kind of license allowing free redistribution such as the GNU General Public License.

If you want to distribute software in a commercial context that incorporates Ghostscript and you do not want to meet these conditions, you should contact Artifex Software to find out about commercial licensing. Commercial licenses involve a (negotiated) payment, and includes support and other benefits. These are the only ways you legally can distribute AFPL Ghostscript or anything containing AFPL Ghostscript: either by distributing Ghostscript under the requirements of the AFPL, or by getting a commercial license from Artifex Software.

For commercial licensing, please contact:

Licensing Information
Artifex Software Inc.
454 Las Gallinas Ave., suite 108
San Rafael, CA 94903 U.S.A.
+1-415-492-9861 telephone
+1-415-492-9862 fax
info@artifex.com
http://www.artifex.com/

If you have questions about the information in this document, please contact:

artofcode LLC
940 Tyler St. Studio 6
Benicia CA 94510 U.S.A.
+1-707-746-6398 fax
raph@artofcode.com
http://www.ghostscript.com/

The GNU General Public License (GPL)

Older versions of Ghostscript (usually the previous major release of AFPL Ghostscript) are distributed with a license called the GNU General Public License (also known as the "GNU License", the "GPL", or "copyleft"), which is similar to the AFPL in requiring source disclosure, but also allows 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 versions identified explicitly as GPL or GNU Ghostscript versions; the generic name Ghostscript, when applied to versions above 4.03, refers to AFPL Ghostscript, which is governed by the Aladdin Free Public License, not the GPL.

The full GPL is included under the name COPYING in the GNU Ghostscript fileset, and can also be obtained directly from the Free Software Foundation:

Free Software Foundation, Inc. (FSF)
59 Temple Place, Suite 330
Boston, MA 02111-1307 U.S.A.
+1-617-542-5942 telephone
+1-617-542-2652 fax (including Japan):
gnu@gnu.org
http://www.gnu.org/

The GPL gotten directly from the FSF or the contents of the COPYING file are authoritative, but for those unfamiliar with the GPL, we now summarize its provisions.

1.

Anyone may copy and distribute GNU 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 must include an offer in writing to provide the source code at no more than reproduction cost), keep all copyright and other notices, and include the GPL with the copies. (Note that this allows anyone receiving such a copy to distribute it freely as well.)

2.

Anyone may modify GNU Ghostscript, but the provisions of (1) apply to modified or derived works as well.

3.

GNU Ghostscript may be "aggregated" with another program; in this case, (1) and (2) do not apply to the other program, but only to GNU Ghostscript.

Provision (2) effectively prevents the development of proprietary commercial products that incorporate GNU Ghostscript without a commercial license as a part, since these are "derived works" in the legal sense.

Questions have arisen at times in particular cases regarding provision (3) as to whether GNU Ghostscript is "aggregated" with other parts of a commercial product, or whether the product has become a "derived work." Normally, combining GNU Ghostscript with another piece of software creates a "derived work"; we consider GNU Ghostscript to be "aggregated" with another piece of software, which we will refer to as "the application", only if all of the following conditions are met:

• The code and documentation for GNU Ghostscript are physically separated from the code and documentation for the application. For electronic form, it is both necessary and sufficient to put the GNU Ghostscript code and documentation in their own directory tree(s).
• GNU Ghostscript, as delivered with the application, is usable independently of the application. More precisely, if a user deletes from the computer system all files delivered with the application except those in the GNU Ghostscript directories, the user will still be able to use GNU Ghostscript as described in GNU Ghostscript's documentation. Among other things, this requires that GNU Ghostscript not call any routines in the application, and not require any data or other files supplied as part of the application.
• The application calls GNU Ghostscript in a way that allows an ordinary user to substitute another program for GNU Ghostscript. (Typically this requires use of a shell script or batch file, or a system call like "exec".) More precisely, if the user deletes from the computer system all the files in the GNU Ghostscript directories, and replaces the GNU 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 GNU Ghostscript documentation must specify all properties of GNU Ghostscript on which the application relies; for example, if GNU 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.
• The conditions of the GPL are met with respect to GNU Ghostscript, including the requirement for propagation of the GPL and the requirement for delivering (or an offer to deliver) source code.

Regarding this last point, the GPL clearly intends that if the distributor only offers to provide the GNU Ghostscript source code (as opposed to actually distributing the source code with every copy of the application), then they must deliver the source code in a timely way to anyone requesting it.

The GPL makes it clear that if someone receives GNU Ghostscript only in its GPL-licensed form, they only have a right to distribute it if they comply with the GPL. artofcode LLC, as the copyright holder, takes this requirement very seriously, and will, if necessary, take legal action to ensure that anyone distributing GNU Ghostscript with the GPL complies with the conditions set forth above.

Copyright © 1996-2002 artofcode LLC. All rights reserved.

This file is part of AFPL Ghostscript. See the Aladdin Free Public License (the "License") for full details of the terms of using, copying, modifying, and redistributing AFPL Ghostscript.

Ghostscript version 8.15, 22 September 2004