Availability and License¶
Availability¶
Inscoper distributes the library free of charge, in support of research. Any group can integrate it into its own acquisition software, analysis pipeline, or facility tooling at no licensing cost, and redistribute the resulting application. The NBO model is large, and implementing it from the schema is a substantial amount of work; providing a ready binding in three languages removes that step, so recording metadata at the level the model describes does not depend on each group building the model itself.
Inscoper built the library because its own software needed it. Most vendors describe systems they assemble themselves; Inscoper drives configurations that combine stands, cameras, light sources, stages, and specialized components from different manufacturers, and every installation differs. A vendor-independent description of hardware and acquisitions is therefore a requirement of the platform, not an addition to it. The value of that description also grows with the number of tools that read it, which is why the library is published rather than kept internal, and why adoption by other software, including competing software, is a reasonable outcome.
Inscoper does not define a standard here. NBO is a community specification, published as a machine-readable schema so that it can be implemented; this library is one implementation of it, offered for reuse.
Support¶
The library is distributed as is. Inscoper provides no support, no maintenance commitment, and no warranty for it, as stated in the Apache License 2.0. Releases are published when Inscoper's own needs require them, and no schedule is announced.
Contributions to the model itself go to the specification maintainers, at WU-BIMAC/NBOMicroscopyMetadataSpecs.
License¶
The library is released under the Apache License, Version 2.0. Integration into proprietary software, redistribution, and modification are permitted, and the license carries an express patent grant. The full text ships as LICENSE in the distribution.
The library is generated from nbo.xsd, which is itself licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License, with copyright held by the Open Microscopy Environment (2002-2016) and by WU-BIMAC, University of Massachusetts Medical School, for the modifications (2017-2021). The same terms apply to the OME schema the model extends. CC-BY 3.0 requires attribution and imposes no share-alike condition, which is why the generated code can be released under a permissive license.
Attribution for both schemas, together with the SWIG generated-code exception, is collected in the NOTICE file. Keep that file with any redistribution.
Citation¶
The upstream authors ask that the specification paper be cited whenever the model is used.
Hammer M, Huisman M, Rigano A, et al. Towards community-driven metadata standards for light microscopy: tiered specifications extending the OME model. Nature Methods 18, 1427-1440 (2021). doi:10.1038/s41592-021-01327-9