[vtkusers] patented directory?

[Jeremy Winston]

sbe wrote:
> Where is the patented directory, I means is that a vocubulary term or a 
> real directory name? I downloaded the complete zip sources, zip library, 
> binaries and dll, unzip and install all of them and cannot find any 
> patented directory!

Did you have your eyes open?  ;-)
VTK\Patented\
is where you should be looking.

> What I want to know is can I use the library vtk 4.0 to do commercial 
> software free of charge or royalties? if yes, how they are making money 
> to survive then?

As long as you don't use any of the classes in the Patented directory,
you can use VTK for commercial software.  Kitware makes money by
providing support for VTK, by doing software development under contract
with various organizations using VTK, & by selling copies of the Users
Guide & textbook, I would imagine.

 From the VTK\README.html:

"Copyright Notice
  VTK has a generous open-source copyright modelled after the BSD license.
  Yes, you can use VTK in commercial products. The only caveat is that if
  you use any classes (there are a small number) in the VTK/Patented
  directory in commercial application, you will want to contact the patent
  holder (listed in the class header) for a license. [...]"

HTH,
-Jeremy