Certain .FCStd files in source code are licensed "All Rights Reserved"

[dpward]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• [X] I have searched the existing issues

Forums discussion

https://forum.freecad.org/viewtopic.php?t=76603

Version

0.21 (Development)

Full version info

Not applicable

Subproject(s) affected?

None

Issue description

.FCStd files contain embedded licensing information. The FreeCAD source code itself includes .FCStd files, and many of these are (most likely inadvertently) marked with the license "All Rights Reserved".

This license is incompatible with the FreeCAD project (see Licensing, Ownership, and Credit in the FreeCAD Contribution Process). This is also incompatible with requirements for inclusion in distributions such as Debian or Fedora.

Anything else?

Affected files include:

• [ ] src/Mod/Fem/femtest/data/calculix/box.FCStd (b25d2cd @PrzemoF, a0a989f @berndhahnebach; was cube.fcstd)
• [ ] src/Mod/Fem/femtest/data/calculix/thermomech_flow1D.FCStd (9fd6738 @kgoao; was Flow1D_thermomech.fcstd)
• [ ] src/Mod/Fem/femtest/data/calculix/thermomech_spine.FCStd (1caeb68 @stoflap, 73b9c73 @berndhahnebach; was spine_thermomech.fcstd)

Code of Conduct

• [X] I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct

[LarryWoestman]

I have a pull request #8899 that should change the licensing for boxtest1.fcstd and drill_test1.FCStd to Creative Commons 4.0. If you prefer to change the licensing some other way, that is fine with me.

[donovaly]

I updated the initial info since 3 files have now been updated. I propose to update the list on every further change.

[sliptonic]

https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/pull/8916 fixes the files where I'm original creator

[sliptonic]

#9010 Fixes all files authored by mlampert. (Discussed with him via email)

[donovaly]

#9010 Fixes all files authored by mlampert. (Discussed with him via email)

Thanks. What is with?: src/Mod/Path/PathTests/Tools/Shape/test-path-tool-bit-shape-00.fcstd

[dpward]

So what about the remaining files here? Is there another way to contact the authors? Should they be removed from the project?

Note that @PrzemoF responded on the forum regarding box.FCStd (renamed from cube.fcstd).

[sliptonic]

I'll fix the other Path file. That was an oversight. Already approved by mlampert

[sliptonic]

I'm removing the Path label since all Path files have been addressed.

[dpward]

Note that @PrzemoF responded on the forum regarding box.FCStd (renamed from cube.fcstd).

I think this comment was missed...

[chennes]

So that will take care of the top one on the list, leaving just the last two. There's probably no path to revising the license on those (we haven't heard from their authors in some time). I don't really know anything about the FEM test suite. @berndhahnebach any problem with removing those two cases?

[berndhahnebach]

The PR was merged ... :-( Have there more files been removed out of FEM? What do we need to do to get them back. AFAIK all fcstd can be generated by FreeCAD and Python, thus we can recreate them and add the correct license.

[berndhahnebach]

I would like to get them back into FreeCAD.

[chennes]

That would be great -- I don't know what was involved with the development of those files so I couldn't do it. If you can regenerate with the correct license I'm happy to get that merged in.

[berndhahnebach]

let us start with the python files. What is wrong with them? ... https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/pull/9794#issuecomment-1603177610

[chennes]

Nothing -- it was just the FCStd files, but to be clean about it I removed the entire test case that relied on those files. If you can replace the files, we can just re-add everything else back in.

[dpward]

@berndhahnebach The authors who originally created the files put "All Rights Reserved" as the license. No one has been able to contact them to see if they actually want to re-license their contribution under something else. It's not about an issue changing the file - we would be violating their copyright.

[berndhahnebach]

Mhh clean would be just to use the python and recreate the FCStd ... but anyway ...

1. I will go for a PR to readd all Python since they do not violate any licesnce.

2. I will recreate the FCStd. This might take a few days because I would need to check if everything works out well.

Would this be OK?

[berndhahnebach]

BTW. No author created the FCStd files. They where created in FreeCAD by python and even saved by Python. Might be "All Rights Reserved" is what FreeCAD does write on standard? How do I controll this?

[dpward]

If you are editing the FCStd files in FreeCAD itself: https://wiki.freecad.org/Licence

You can set the owner of the file and specify your own license terms for the files you produce inside FreeCAD, via menu File → Project Information.

[berndhahnebach]

I am the Python guy. All these FCStd fils have been fully automatically created by Python. Thus the question. How do I edit these licence information by Python?

[dpward]

If you want to change it in FreeCAD after Python generates it: set the "license information" drop-down to something else there, e.g. CC-BY-SA-4.0. But how to do that programmatically I don't know...

[berndhahnebach]

If you want to change it in FreeCAD after Python generates it: set the "license information" drop-down to something else there, e.g. CC-BY-SA-4.0.

this is not available in drop down list for me

[FlachyJoe]

@berndhahnebach You can set whatever you want for this property App.ActiveDocument.License = "Do what you want with this!"

[berndhahnebach]

found it ...

>>> App.ActiveDocument.License
'All rights reserved'
>>> 
>>> App.ActiveDocument.License = "My fancy licence"
>>> 
>>> App.ActiveDocument.License
'My fancy licence'
>>> 

[berndhahnebach]

upps double post ... or cross post or how ever it is named if two people post the same at the same time

[dpward]

If you want to change it in FreeCAD after Python generates it: set the "license information" drop-down to something else there, e.g. CC-BY-SA-4.0.

this is not available in drop down list for me

Not sure which version of FreeCAD you're running, but as a result of this whole thread, the license options that can be selected in the GUI were updated: see 898403a55a843d774c305f0c8d153130445fcc72

[berndhahnebach]

ahh ok, ATM I am not on my dev machine. On the working machine I do have not the newes FreeCAD installed. But I have all information needed to make a PR. Thanks ...

[chennes]

@marioalexis84 or @FEA-eng could one of you take a look at rebuilding these files with the appropriate license? I'd like to re-close this issue but I don't want these test cases to be consigned to oblivion forever.

[marioalexis84]

Ok @chennes. How I should proceed? just save the project again with the modified license? In that case, what is the appropriate license? I'm taking random testing projects in FEM and they all say "All rights reserved"

[FEA-eng]

Ok @chennes. How I should proceed? just save the project again with the modified license? In that case, what is the appropriate license? I'm taking random testing projects in FEM and they all say "All rights reserved"

There was a similar issue with the FEM start page examples. I just reuploaded them after setting the license in File --> Document information to CC BY 4.0 and saving them.