Add Dymaxion/Fuller Projection

[proj4-bot]

Reported by wildintellect on 12 Apr 2014 18:41 UTC
Someone's already done the hard part, we just need to convert it to C
I believe this was written to work with Proj4js
http://mbostock.github.io/protovis/ex/dymax.js

Migrated-From: https://trac.osgeo.org/proj/ticket/232

[micahcochran]

That Javascript code looks like it is a direct copy of Robert W. Gray's C code with some small adjustments for Javascript.
http://www.rwgrayprojects.com/rbfnotes/maps/docs/graypr.c

I am not a lawyer, but it seems like Robert W. Gray's C code would have rights to license and copyright. The problem with integrating this Gray's C code in PROJ.4 is the licensing "[t]his C program is copyrighted by Robert W. Gray and may not be used in ANY for-profit project without written permission" (emphasis added). Getting permission would be the first step for incorporating this code to be incorporated into the project.

Gray has a little more information about the Dymaxion/Fuller projection on the his website.

[poelzi]

👍 I so much would love to see dymaxion support - best projection ever :)

[AnnanFay]

Hello, I recently opened the above basemap issue about this.

Is there any more recent info? d3 seemed to include the js port of the code by including the copyright statement. If proj4 is not itself for-profit it should be possible to just include it and add a proviso to the proj4 licence which states the exception. Then it's up to people who use the library to be aware of the licensing?

In addition to the document the website says:

Usage Note: My work is copyrighted. You may use my work but you may not include my work, or parts of it, in any for-profit project without my consent.

The reason I include this is because the inline statement only says you cannot use it for-profit, while this says you can use it for anything not for-profit.

[QuLogic]

That's definitely a non-free clause that wouldn't be liked by downstream distros. It's certainly less free than the MIT license used for proj4.

[hobu]

We are not including this projection in Proj.4 until the licensing issues are resolved by the author(s).

[busstoptaktik]

We are not including this projection in Proj.4 until the licensing issues are resolved by the author(s).

The original submitter has done nothing to resolve this for more than 3 years. Additionally Dymaxion is even a trademark of the BF Institute, so even having a clean room reimplementation of R. Gray's code in PROJ.4 would cause trouble, unless we call it something else (like myDaxion, Damyxion, etc).

Hence closing this. I see no chance this is going to happen

[IgnoredAmbience]

From the linked d3 issue above, it appears that there's now a cleanroom implementation of the projection in JS. The authors have skirted the trademark issue by calling it "Buckminster Fuller's Airocean projection".

d3/d3-geo-projection#25 (comment)