From: spl@ivem.ucsd.edu (Steve Lamont)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.visualization
Subject: Re: SDSC Image Tools source
Date: 7 Jan 1993 16:35:56 GMT
Organization: University of Calif., San Diego/Microscopy and Imaging Resource
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: ivem.ucsd.edu

In article <1ifpp3INN33k@network.ucsd.edu> nadeau@sdsc.edu writes:
>
>In response to the SDSC Image Tools release posting, Alaxander-James Annala
>wrote:
>	>The same thing could probably be said about SDSC's proprietary SYNU
>	>code -- the imaging/microscopy project was presumably funded with a
>	>lot of public dollars -- but the project now claims it has to levy
>	>a 'distribution fee' in order to make people report how the system
>	>is being used -- and the system was pretty much limited to running
>	>on SGI machines (which we don't have available at USC -- we mostly
>	>have sun's in the labs, alliants at central sites, and some pc's
>	>running various flavors of unix).  I'd like to see SYNU released in
>	>source code form so it can be ported to new platforms and/or fixed
>	>when errors appear -- and so I can understand what it really does
>	>to my data.

Synu is not proprietary to SDSC.  It is "proprietary" to the San Diego
Microscopy and Imaging Resource, the organization for which I am
Director of Graphics and Imaging.  Early on, there was a close linkage
between the San Diego Supercomputer Center and the Microscopy and
Imaging Resource -- we used their Visualization Lab intensively before
our facility was built and our equipment arrived -- and an early
version of Synu was written by the current author in collaboration
with another SDSC staffer.  However, Synu is now the responsibility of
SDMIR.

This is kind of awkward for me, since I argued against charging a fee
for Synu, even the relatively small $100 fee that we do charge (I call
it a nuisance fee).  I am still adamantly opposed to the fee and the
"executable-only" modality of distribution.  However, I have been
overruled by the Director of the Resource in this matter.

As Dr. Annala correctly states, while part of our mission as a
National Research Resource, funded by the National Institutes of
Health, is to develop tools of use to our collegues in the fields of
neuroscience and electron microscopy.  These tools are clearly
developed with public money.  The other side of the coin is that since
the tool set is developed with the public's money, we have to be
accountable to the public and to our funding agency.  One of the ways
that we do this is to keep track of what researchers are doing with
the things we develop.  The registration process helps us to do this.
It also allows us to send updated software and documentation to
registered users (which we do without additional cost to the user).

The fee is a compromise.  Other publicly funded activities are charging
considerably more for some of their software development products.

Since I'm not the author of the code, I don't have as much to say
about its distribution as I might like.  I can tell you that the
"executable-only" distribution, IMHO, is a huge pain in the rump,
since it takes a significant portion of a paid lab assistant's time to
create the tapes, put together the documentation, mail it out, keep
records, etc., etc., etc., not to mention the time that I personally
spend responding to user questions.  I'd rather chuck the thing out in
a public FTP site and say, "go for it," so I can get on with my other
work.  However, that, in some senses, would be an act of disrespect to
the programmer whose five years of intensive work Synu is.

This I can promise to the community.  Any code development that I am
personally involved with is copyrighted under the GNU Public License
and is, and will continue to be, freely available.  I will urge my
collegues and staff members to do likewise.

In case it isn't abundantly clear, this posting represents my own
thoughts on this question and I am not speaking for anyone other than
myself.  I certainly don't speak for (and, in fact, disagree with) the
Director of the San Diego Microscopy and Imaging Resource and the
Resrource itself.

							spl
-- 
Steve Lamont, SciViGuy -- (619) 534-7968 -- spl@szechuan.ucsd.edu
UCSD Microscopy and Imaging Resource/UCSD Med School/La Jolla, CA 92093-0608
"Personally, I don't care whether someone is cool enough to quote Doug
Gwyn--I only care whether Doug Gwyn is cool enough to quote." - Larry Wall