Executive summary on CCP4 commercial policy
===========================================

The legal document is the licence. This is a private
interpretation to help CCP4 staff. The original is from
Jim, but MDW will try to keep it up-to-date as things
evolve.



CCP4 licence is free to all academic labs conducting academic research.
Academic labs funded by commercial companies doing work for them MUST buy a
commercial licence. Thus a lab can be treated both as academic and a commercial
company.
CCP4 is freely available at synchrotrons, however, companies should ensure they
have a valid CCP4 licence before using it.
Companies pay an annual licence fee. There is no other way for them to have or
to use the suite. 
(MDW: so companies cannot even use old versions if they do not have
a licence.)
The licence fee is to develop and enhance the suite. It does
not confer ownership on the company. 
The fee is set by WG1 on which several companies are represented.
CCP4 will not discuss the fee with individual companies, there are no special
deals no one off's and no discounts or trials.
(MDW: so single purchases are no longer offered.)

The licence allows companies to use the suite at a single site. If they wish to
use it at multiple sites, they must pay an additional fee (less than the main
fee). 
Fees are advertised on the web.

The licence has three parts:
Part 0 and 1 are essentially the same, although the language differs a little.
Part 0 is LGPL and Part 1 is LGPL compatible. This means you can modify the code
and distribute your modifications provided you distribute the code.

Part 2 is more restricted. You need copyright holders permission to alter or
distribute this code.

CCP4 in relation to developers:
We ask for a non-exclusive licence (you can distribute the stuff yourself).
We cannot accept GPL as it could compromise other software, we do accept LGPL. 
There is no profit sharing nor payment to Universities/individuals. The funds
from CCP4 go to support the suite and scientific research. Payment to
individuals would destroy the whole raison d'etre of the suite.

26/01/04 Update on syncnhrotron usage:

This is commercial. 
I agree, charge the full whack. NO one else allows a lower usage policy.
Since they are charging Industrial users.
Best
Jim

> I have your message from last year on Commercial policy,
> but it only covers the case of industrial users at
> the beamline (when CCP4 is free provided industrial has
> licence).
> 
> I would consider a Fedex service to be commercial use
> of CCP4 by the beamline (they are selling results of CCP4
> rather than just selling beamtime). 
> 
> m
>