Cfitsio 4.4.1 has been released now. They have dropped NOSA and switched
back to their original license:
https://github.com/HEASARC/cfitsio/tree/cfitsio4_4_1_20240606
<https://github.com/HEASARC/cfitsio/tree/cfitsio4_4_1_20240606>
We are also expecting another cfitsio shortly that will have a slightly
more mainstream configure.ac.
*From: *Singer, Leo P. (GSFC-6610) <leo.p.singer@nasa.gov>
*Date: *Tuesday, May 14, 2024 at 18:21
*To: *Ole Streicher <olebole@debian.org>, Aurelien Jarno
<aurelien@aurel32.net>
*Cc: *debian-astro@lists.debian.org <debian-astro@lists.debian.org>
*Subject: *Re: [EXTERNAL] [BULK] cfitsio license change
Hi Ole,
I am taking this up with management at NASA.
Thanks,
Leo
*From: *Ole Streicher <olebole@debian.org>
*Date: *Tuesday, May 14, 2024 at 15:00
*To: *Aurelien Jarno <aurelien@aurel32.net>
*Cc: *debian-astro@lists.debian.org <debian-astro@lists.debian.org>
*Subject: *[EXTERNAL] [BULK] cfitsio license change
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of NASA. Please take care
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Hi Aurelien,
(Cc: debian-astro)
Astropy just discovered [1] that cfitsio 4.4.0 is now under the NASA
Open Source Agreement 1.2 (see licenses/LICENSE.txt). While this license
is OSI approved [2], Debian sees it as not compliant with the DFSG [3].
This license change was done silently, it is not mentioned in the changelog.
I am not sure whether this is the reason that cfitsio-4.4.0 is not
uploaded to Debian yet and if you are already aware of this. If we can't
get the license change reverted, it would have catastrophic consequences
for the astronomy ecosystem on Debian: many programs depend on it, and
while we probably can still stick with an older version, the
dependencies may come with updated dependency minversions in future.
Probably the best way would be to contact upstream and discuss this;
maybe you already did this? Or do you have other ideas how to resolve
the problem?
Best
Ole
[1]
https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fastropy%2Fastropy%2Fpull%2F16456%2Ffiles%2F5a1843b2f9eda6fb367713460adba684bfc9e11f%23diff-8ca2fa953f583044439880e4fee715b2c92152e7f21b7f0ff630a0ab0d98249e&data=05%7C02%7Cleo.p.singer%40nasa.gov%7C3e2be44b51004fd80e9f08dc744821ed%7C7005d45845be48ae8140d43da96dd17b%7C0%7C0%7C638513100355760894%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=N%2FJNB9NzzWZSDFRP9hdo9N%2B5XQgjAdi3GYoj7evI5ok%3D&reserved=0 <https://github.com/astropy/astropy/pull/16456/files/5a1843b2f9eda6fb367713460adba684bfc9e11f#diff-8ca2fa953f583044439880e4fee715b2c92152e7f21b7f0ff630a0ab0d98249e>
[2]
https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fopensource.org%2Flicense%2Fnasa1-3-php&data=05%7C02%7Cleo.p.singer%40nasa.gov%7C3e2be44b51004fd80e9f08dc744821ed%7C7005d45845be48ae8140d43da96dd17b%7C0%7C0%7C638513100355771611%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=kp5HIPU518yTBRZ3Mq5FxF8tQPB3caFk6leNCKXB0rk%3D&reserved=0 <https://opensource.org/license/nasa1-3-php>
[3]
https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flists.debian.org%2Fdebian-legal%2F2011%2F04%2Fmsg00075.html&data=05%7C02%7Cleo.p.singer%40nasa.gov%7C3e2be44b51004fd80e9f08dc744821ed%7C7005d45845be48ae8140d43da96dd17b%7C0%7C0%7C638513100355779013%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=t25VNgU00dMdE9XzjtX545V3mqJwUR6IxNds7H8eeUM%3D&reserved=0 <https://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2011/04/msg00075.html>