
An Update on Spline Licensing - edwintorok
https://raphlinus.github.io/curves/2019/05/10/spline-licensing-update.html
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montroser
This is wonderful news. Spiro splines are very cool, but I never considered
them a real option for any projects I was working on because of the licensing
issue. Hobby splines were the patent unencumbered next best choice as far as I
could tell, but Spiro semantics always seemed incrementally preferable.

Raph's thesis on splines is a fun read:
[https://www.levien.com/phd/thesis.pdf](https://www.levien.com/phd/thesis.pdf)

And the original paper on Hobby splines:
[https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2FBF02187690.p...](https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2FBF02187690.pdf)

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scardine
Can you comment on the advantages of this implementation comparing to the one
used in Inkscape or other popular software?

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raphlinus
I'll be giving at talk at Libre Graphics Meeting in a couple weeks on
_exactly_ this topic. I'll make the slides available as well. Hopefully
they'll make the front page of Hacker News also, as that seems to be a thing
these days for my work :)

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scardine
Cool, looking forward to the talk.

My first job as a software developer was writing AutoCAD extensions (in
"AutoLisp" so you can guess how old I am).

Even if I don't work in the field anymore the topic is still fascinating for
me.

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marknadal
THIS IS WONDERFUL!!!

And needs to be applauded loudly.

I've heavily criticized GNU family licenses, and HN has been full of companies
who have moved from more Open licenses (MIT, Apache 2, BSD, ZLIB, etc.) to
more restrictive licenses (GPL, AGPL) and "open core" crippleware has become
trendy lately by failing companies trying to exploit their communities to
survive.

To see a move from GPL to Apache2/MIT is fantastic!

Let's hope that this starts a trend. :)

Great work!

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raphlinus
Thanks for the kind words.

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weinzierl
>I am passing all patents into the public domain. I’d like to say a few words
about why.

Honest question: How does that work? Is it enough for the author to say that
they are in the public domain now?

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a_t48
He pushed [https://github.com/raphlinus/spiro/blob/master/LICENSE-
MIT](https://github.com/raphlinus/spiro/blob/master/LICENSE-MIT) which should
definitely be enough. :)

~~~
DoctorOetker
if they are truly in the public domain, one doesn't need to respect any
licensing?

~~~
femto113
For the patents yes, but the code is still copyrighted, so the new Apache/MIT
licenses apply. They’re quite permissive though so I can’t imagine many uses
that would run afoul of them.

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gridlockd
Great news!

I'm certainly no artist, but on occasion I do need to create graphics. I
absolutely loathe using Bezier-Splines, but the Spiro-Splines in Inkscape are
a joy to use.

That said, Inkscape isn't necessarily the nicest or most popular tool, so I
hope many more artists (and non-artists!) will get to use them in the future.

