[glug-t] Why POV-Ray is not free software?

Hi Guys,
For the uninitiated POV-Ray(http://www.povray.org) is a excellent ray tracing 
software developed by volunteers. I had used POV-Ray long back, did a 
presentation on it, during my school's science exhibit. Recently, I started 
wondering why POV-Ray was not free though it was developed volunteers. I 
checked out the POV Ray's license and found this piece of information it.

--------------- START ---------------
While this explanation doesn't really belong in this document, we are asked it 
often enough that we have decided to put it here. While the POV-Ray? source 
code is freely available, it isn't 'open' according to the currently popular 
definition of the term (meaning that it isn't available to create derivative 
works other than fully functional versions of POV-Ray). The reasons for this 
are historical. Primarily, at the time that POV-Ray? was originally developed 
(starting in about 1990), on Compuserve, it was a different environment than 
today. Virtually none of the developers had internet access and there wasn't a 
great awareness of things like the GPL. The team at that time rolled their own 
license - one that allowed free use of the software but attempted to prevent 
people taking unfair advantage of it. 

As people contributed code to POV-Ray? over the years - and there have been 
many instances of this - they contributed it to us on the understanding that it 
would be covered by the POV-Ray? license, as it stood at the time. Now, in 
2001, we find that in many cases we don't know who wrote what part of the code, 
or that the author is uncontactable. We simply don't have the right to 
arbitrarily change the terms under which their source code is distributed. Even 
though it was contributed to us, we feel that we must honor the terms under 
which it was given. Therefore, POV- Ray? will remain on this existing license 
until we do a full re-write (which is intended for v4), at which time a new 
license will be instituted that is far more liberal in terms of reuse. 
----------- END ----------------

Read the rest of the license for more 
information.(http://www.povray.org/povlegal.html)
Now the big question is, can Saint iGNUcius use POV-Ray v3.5? 

Vijay

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