﻿# PdfRenderer licensing


## The long winded explanation

This plugin (PdfRenderer) uses the Ghostscript library, which is licensed [under the GPL v3](http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html).

Therefore, this plugin (PdfRenderer) is also made available under the GPL v3, 
as the current version links dynamically to the Ghostscript library. 

While the GPL v3 does not allow us to license the binaries under the MIT license 
(since they are derivative works when used with the Ghostscript DLLs),
we can license the source under the MIT license. 

This allows any future user to take the source code and modify it to either 

 * (a) not use ghostscript, or 
 * (b) use ghostscript via an external executable, and therefore lift the GPL v3 requirement.

Be aware that (unlike any of the other plugins), this places restrictions on the binaries of any code 
that uses the PdfRenderer plugin; because it too becomes under the GPL, 
in addition to any other license it is under.

If you are not distributing binaries of your code which uses the PdfRenderer plugin, 
or are only using them on your web server, it is unlikely you need to be concerned about this.

However, **if you are including this plugin as part of a product or deliverable, 
you should make sure you understand the implications**.

One way to fix this licensing problem would be to have a version which uses the 
GhostScript executables instead of the DLL. It may have reduced performance, 
but would not require the plugin to be GPL licensed.

If you are interested in funding development of a GPL-free version, please contact support@imageresizing.net.

**To sum up: Compiled versions which use Ghostscript are under the GPL v3. Source is under MIT or GPL v3, your pick**. 

### GPL v3 License

[It's long, click here](http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html).

## MIT License (only on source code)

Copyright (c) 2012 Jason Morse and Nathanael Jones

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and 
associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
 without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell 
 copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT 
LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. 
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, 
WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE
 OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.