[chimera-dev] Re: ANN: UCSF Chimera

[Eric Pettersen]

On Tuesday, June 17, 2003, at 10:34  AM, Ethan Merritt wrote:

> In article <20030609161925132-0700 at cgl.ucsf.edu> you write:
>> The UCSF Resource for Biocomputing, Visualization, and Informatics
>> is pleased to announce the newest release of UCSF Chimera, an
>> interactive molecular modeling system.  It is free to academic and
>> non-profit users and is available for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, IRIX,
>> and Tru64 Unix.  It can be downloaded from 
>> http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera
>>
>> Chimera has the capabilities common to many molecular graphics 
>> programs,
>> as well as a number of more unique features, including:
>
> [snip]
>
>>   - Extensibility as a design principle, allowing users to create
>>     custom modules without changing Chimera code.
>
> This is unlikely to happen so long as Chimera is distributed with
> such a restrictive license.
>
> The following 2 clauses pretty much kill my interest in developing any
> software to work with Chimera.
>
> 3 The Licensee agrees that any modifications or derivative works based
>   on the Software are considered part of the Software and the Licensee
>   hereby assigns all copyright in all such modifications and derivative
>   works to the Regents.
>
> 4 The Licensee shall not disclose in any form either the delivered
>   Software or any modifications or derivative works based on the
>   Software to third parties without prior written authorization from
>   the Regents.
>
> This is a pity, since otherwise Chimera looks like an interesting
> target for integrating a number of graphics projects I am involved in.

I don't believe these clauses actually restrict your ownership or 
ability to redistribute modules/extensions you develop for Chimera.  I 
believe they restrict your ability to modify/redistribute the Chimera 
source code itself.  Extensions don't require modification of Chimera 
source code.  Nonetheless, I have cc'ed this reply to the head of our 
lab, Tom Ferrin (tef at cgl.ucsf.edu), so he can hopefully confirm that 
what I have said is indeed the case.  Certainly points 3 & 4 of the 
license could be explicitly clarified to _not_ restrict 
ownership/distribution of extensions.

There are already two extensions being distributed by third parties 
(SSD: ssd.rbvi.ucsf.edu; ViewFeature: 
http://feature.stanford.edu/documentation.html) that I'm fairly certain 
did not require written authorization by the Regents.

> Is there a forum in which we can request that these clauses be dropped
> from the license?

chimera-dev at cgl.ucsf.edu is used to handle concerns/questions of 
Chimera developers.  I've cc'ed this reply there also.

Sincerely,
	Eric Pettersen
	pett at cgl.ucsf.edu