The OpenSees Community

I e-mailed PEER and this is part of the response they gave me today:

"The intent of the copyright is to allow anybody to use and do with what they want the code with the exception of software developers wishing to include opensees code in software they sell. It was drafted by UC lawyers. The intent by removing the word distribution from the second condition, was to ensure commercial companies do not distribute the software without obtaining a license to do so, and allow them to do everything else. In short, internal use by yourself and others to utilize OpenSees to produce numbers for your work is permitted."

I guess I'm surprised they can charge for it, since maintenance funding came from the National Science Foundation:
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAwa ... ID=0402490
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAwa ... ID=9701568
That doesn't seem right if federal taxpayer dollars funded it - but what do I know? I may do some more digging with UC Berkley and the NSF to get to the bottom of this. I can't seem to get a clear answer here.

I have the same question. ponczek, that’s not how I read the license. I’m inclined to believe mhscott’s response, unless something changed since February, as he is actively involved with OpenSees development. I think “internal use” just means you’re not selling the code itself. Running calculations and sharing the results of those calculations for profit is OK as far as I understand it.

My next question would be, is this going to ever change? I’d like to start developing a framework of specialized engineering tools around OpenSees to aid me at work. I’d also like to invest my personal time becoming more proficient with OpenSees. But I don’t want to put that effort in if OpenSees is going to switch to a proprietary license down the road that severely restricts my ability to use that skill set in my daily work.

Regarding (iii): The command is case sensitive. The online documentation has an error. Enter 'tri31' instead of 'Tri31'.