- DelphiTools - https://www.delphitools.info -

GLScene source code used in FireMonkey?

[1]Dan Bartlett spotted some GLScene [2] source code in FireMonkey, see this thread [3] in the Embarcadero forum for details, parts of the VectorGeometry.pas, Spline.pas and raycasting code have been identified. The code having been incorporated in closed-source code (KSDev’s, Delphi XE2) it hadn’t been spotted or reported so far (at least to my knowledge).

edit: snippet posted in the comments, < & > lost, but you’ll get the idea.

edit 2: I’ve been contacted by Embarcadero, the code is being looked into, rewritten/replaced to get out of MPL where needs be, and everything should come to a happy conclusion.

FWIW, neither Embarcadero nor KSDev have made any closed-source or special non-MPL agreement with the original authors, so technically speaking, they’re in breach of license.
For the parts mentioned above, the original authors would be mostly me, Mike Lischke, and whoever you can see mentioned in the Sourceforge CVS/SVN log at the date the code was copied, so they’re not in the big trouble they would be if they had ended up using Oracle’s code or Apple’s drawings 😉

GLScene being under MPL [4], it should be reasonably easy for Embarcadero to get into compliance, to quote wikipedia [5]:

all distributed copies must contain the source code, all modifications must be described in accompanying documentation, all necessary patents must be described in accompanying documentation, all copies of the code must have a statement of copyright attached, and all modified code must be distributed under MPL, although new files containing new code need not be distributed under MPL.

And also:

The way in which the Mozilla Public License is drafted basically requires subsequent users to license the original code under MPL and all additional code under any kind of license

Meaning in short that all compiled FireMonkey applications should have a copyright statement about GLScene (in the about box f.i.), and if you modify FireMonkey source files yourself, depending on what you modify, you could fall under MPL and you would have to publish those modifications.

KSDev applications released in the wild should also have that copyright statement added, btw.

Note that you don’t have to physically include the MPL source code with the binaries, as long as you provide a link to a website hosting the code (in this case GLScene.org or the SourceForge page).