France
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Re: license question
From GNU GPL FAQ available at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLOutput , the output generated with a program distributed under GNU GPL isn't covered by GNU GPL license and its copyright belongs to the people who made it. Thus, the copyright of the images generated by Sweet Home 3D should belong to the user who made them and he can choose to use these images in a closed project or in a non-free project.
But the same FAQ also states that when a program translates its input into some other form, the copyright status of the output inherits that of the input it was generated from. Then, I guess the copyright of images generated by Sweet Home 3D should also depend on the copyrights of the furniture models displayed in it. As the 3D models shown in the default catalog of the program and in the 3D models page http://www.sweethome3d.eu/importModels.html are distributed either under GNU GPL, Free Art License or Creative Commons Attribution license, the images generated by Sweet Home 3D that displays these 3D models can be distributed freely even for commercial purpose. But I'm not perfectly sure that these images can be distributed under a closed license.
As a conclusion, I would recommend that you distribute images created with Sweet Home 3D under a free license with your additional copyright, along with your project and its closed/non-free license.
As I'm not a lawyer, any advice will be read with great interest. ;-)
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Emmanuel Puybaret, Sweet Home 3D developer
Joined: Jul 23, 2009
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Re: license question
A few days ago i joined #gnu@irc.freenode.org to ask about it, and this is what a guy told me: Considering the GPL models an input for building an output (renderings) this output may be GPL too. That is, free to use, BUT when models/input are GPL that's a different story. Of course there is no problem by using the CCA models (just attribution required).
So your reasoning seems to be the correct one. If i don't want to make GPL my renderings i should use just CCA models. Otherwise i have to publish them under GPL.
France
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Re: license question
I designed all the GNU GPL models included by default in the software (they are tagged with "eTeks" as creator). I chose for them the same license as the one of Sweet Home 3D for simplification purpose and not with the intention of obliging users to distribute under GNU GPL the images and the documents they created with Sweet Home 3D. So feel free to use the GNU GPL models in the images you will generate with Sweet Home 3D for your closed project (just add an attribution please).
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Emmanuel Puybaret, Sweet Home 3D developer
Joined: Jul 23, 2009
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Re: license question
Your attribution will be there, for sure, and also to your great program. You've done a very good job, and this reference is something very important IMHO.
United Kingdom
Joined: Oct 3, 2017
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Re: license question
The models included by default in the software now include a few by "Sheep", "Geantick" and "GdB". Do you know if these guys, like you, wish to allow us to produce documents with no obligation to publish with GNU GPL?
France
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Re: license question
The contributors cited in ContributedFurnitureCatalog.properties didn't express their wish to release their models under the GNU GPL and I fear that some of them are unreachable to ask their opinion about it. If you want to use only GNU GPL 3D models, just edit with a zip tool the Funiture.jar file found in installation folder of Sweet Home 3D to remove all the files that start by ContributedFurnitureCatalog.
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Emmanuel Puybaret, Sweet Home 3D developer
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last edit by Puybaret at Oct 28, 2018, 10:46:09 AM]
France
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Re: license question
For your information, in Sweet Home 3D version 6.0, I replaced the 24 models found in the default catalog of Sweet Home 3D and contributed under LAL license, by new models that I designed myself and published under GNU GPL or CC-BY licenses. I also listed the 3D models of the default catalog in the new 3D models in the default catalog section of the free models page.
This should make it easier for users to handle the license of homes designed with the default catalog of Sweet Home 3D. From version 6.0, eTeks is the only copyrights owner of 3D models and textures found in the default catalogs, as well as homes proposed in File > New from demo menu item. All these resources, found also in the src/com/eteks/sweethome3d/io/resources folder of the source code, are available under GNU GPL or CC-BY license at your choice.
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Emmanuel Puybaret, Sweet Home 3D developer
