Licensing

Enabling MONSOON technology as an Open Source development has been a principle objective from the concept stages of the project. The choice of technology and methods has always focused on providing controllers that are not hindered by propriety technology and free of licensing and/or royalty fees. The objective to release all technology associated with the MONSOON Image Acquisition System has been fully met. 

Open source technology provides many advantages to the user. Some of these advantages are outlined here in this white paper that was presented to NOIRLab management to argue the case for open source development.

The announcement of the release of MONSOON technology to the community by NOIRLab in 2004 is found here.

And finally, the open source license agreement for using MONSOON technology is here.

Essentially you, as a prospective user of a MONSOON system, are allowed to do anything you like with the technology as long as you do not try to license it as your own property i.e. the open license must be propagated to all future developments using this technology.

You can peruse the documentation, adopt some or all of the technology, modify it it to suit your specific purposes, build it in quantity, sell it, even burn it if you wish; but please do not try to inhibit others from using the technology by licensing it to yourself.

At NOIRLab we are committed to honoring our side of the license agreement. That is, we are committed to disclose all information concerning the MONSOON technology. Most of the information can be found on this web site. However, source files for the circuit board schematics and layouts are relatively large to handle through the hyperlink protocols. If you require the sources or other information that is not directly available on this website please contact Peter Moore - pmoore_at_noao_dot_edu or +56 51 205233 / +56 51 205208.