TS2 violates library licenses

[licensing]

Hi,
while I usually like TS2, I today was severely disappointed by discovering that it uses (and distributes) at least two libraries in violation of their respectiive license:

1. HawkVoiceDI (hvdi.dll / libHVDI.so.0.8.0) is released under LGPL (v2 or later), which means you need to include a notice saying HVDI is licensed under the LGPL, include the LGPL and warranty disclaimers, and make HVDI's source code available.

2. libspeex (libspeex.dll / libspeex.so.1.0.0) is licensed under a 3-clause BSD license, which means you need to reproduce their COPYING blurb somewhere.

(There are also KeyPress.dll and libborqt-6.9-qt-2.3.so, which may also have licensing restrictions, but I didn't research them.)

Please fix that. You're using libraries written by other people, and it is disrespectful (and illegal) to do so without honoring what small demands they make in return.

Thanks.

[Peter]

1. HawkVoiceDI (hvdi.dll / libHVDI.so.0.8.0) is released under LGPL (v2 or later), which means you need to include a notice saying HVDI is licensed under the LGPL, include the LGPL and warranty disclaimers, and make HVDI's source code available.

You can download hawkvoice direct interface from http://www.hawksoft.com/download/ including the source code. You can also view the changelog of hawk voice direct interface at:
http://www.hawksoft.com/hawkvoice/HVDIchanges.txt

Where you will find:

Changed license of LPC-10 and GSM to LGPL
[and on a different release]
Changed license of CELP and LPC to LGPL

Sorry that we do not include a LGPL license or an offer to download the sources to build the hawkvoicedi library with TS2, but we are not using any codecs that were licensed under the lgpl, at the point we used hawkvoicedi. If we were to ever update the hawkvoicedi library we would of course respect the LGPLs wishes.

2. libspeex (libspeex.dll / libspeex.so.1.0.0) is licensed under a 3-clause BSD license, which means you need to reproduce their COPYING blurb somewhere.

Sure, check About -> Copyright -> Other, there you find the Copyright line for Speex (and also a mention of HawkVoiceDI). I think one point where you might actually be right is that I don't see the reproduction of this text for speex:

- Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

- Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

- Neither the name of the Xiph.org Foundation nor the names of its
contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from
this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS
``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR
A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE FOUNDATION OR
CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL,
EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR
PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING
NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

In our next TS2 client release we will add this to the documentation somewhere. Thanks for pointing it out.

(There are also KeyPress.dll and libborqt-6.9-qt-2.3.so, which may also have licensing restrictions, but I didn't research them.)

Both of those are clean. The qt-2.3 library is the borland distributed version of Qt-2 that came via Kylix. There are no strings attached to that (it is like a "commercial" Qt library).

[licensing]

Changed license of LPC-10 and GSM to LGPL
[and on a different release]
Changed license of CELP and LPC to LGPL

Sorry that we do not include a LGPL license or an offer to download the sources to build the hawkvoicedi library with TS2, but we are not using any codecs that were licensed under the lgpl, at the point we used hawkvoicedi.

In the versions downloadeable from hawksoft.com, the core library parts (hvdi.c,{de,en}cpacket.c,...) are also covered by the LGPL, so whether or not you are using these codecs would not matter. There is nothing on hawksoft.com indicating the library was available under any other license previously. Of course,it might have beeen (to you or publicly), and in that case it would be nice if you say so. Sorry for bothering you then.

[speex]
In our next TS2 client release we will add this to the documentation somewhere. Thanks for pointing it out.

[others]
Both of those are clean. The qt-2.3 library is the borland distributed version of Qt-2 that came via Kylix. There are no strings attached to that (it is like a "commercial" Qt library).

Great, thanks!

[Peter]

In the versions downloadeable from hawksoft.com, the core library parts (hvdi.c,{de,en}cpacket.c,...) are also covered by the LGPL, so whether or not you are using these codecs would not matter. There is nothing on hawksoft.com indicating the library was available under any other license previously. Of course,it might have beeen (to you or publicly), and in that case it would be nice if you say so.

Well, sadly I don't find an archive on the hawksoft.com website where I could go and download the actual version used with TS2. The changlog indicating a switch to LGPL is at least a hint that the licensing might not always have been as it is now. Anyways, lets just give it the benefit of the doubt and hope that the TS2 programmers were responsible enough to research the license and comply to it