Re: Making Scilab free (as in speech) software
Just had a reply from a Scilab author, and this is what I replied
back. He gave me permission to post it here.
Peter
------- Forwarded Message
From: Peter S Galbraith <GalbraithP@dfo-mpo.gc.ca>
To: scilab@inria.fr
Subject: Re: Making Scilab free (as in speech) software
In-reply-to: (Your message of Wed, 04 Apr 2001 13:57:22 +0200.)
<200104041157.NAA02194@scicos.inria.fr>
Date: Wed, 04 Apr 2001 09:24:37 -0400
Dr Scilab wrote:
> you wrote> >
> you wrote> > I hope you'll consider this email in the constructive spirit in
> you wrote> > which I meant it. Scilab is your software and you are free to
> you wrote> > choose whatever license you want. But if you meant it to be
> you wrote> > free, I think it falls a little short of that. Please feel free
> you wrote> > to ask for clarifications. I am not a lawyer, just a Debian
> you wrote> > developer who would like to see scilab included in Debian
> you wrote> > GNU/Linux's main archive.
> you wrote> >
>
> Dear Peter,
>
> Thank for your interest in Scilab. We made an effort to
> understand all these legal issues, but we were not capable of
> really getting a hold on all the details. That is why we asked our
> institute (Inria) to have a professional look at it. We told him what
> we wanted (in layman terms) and gave him many examples of
> free software licenses, he came up with what you have seen.
I see.
> We are stuck with it for now, but we can re-examine the issue
> for the next release.
Okay. I hope the time between releases isn't too long then. ;-)
> Probably the mistake we made was not to
> publish the proposed license ahead of time for people like you
> to react to. I personally didn't see a contradiction between our current
> license and Debian ; I see that I was wrong.
Please feel free to contact me the next time if you wish, and
I'll make sure to consult with others, or contact the
debian-legal mailing list (debian-legal@lists.debian.org) with
the proposed license text. It's actually not a mailing list of
lawyers despite the name, but of (mostly) well-informed Debian
developers. We'll try to help you make sure your license is
free.
> Anyway, in our mind there is no doubt that Scilab is
> free for any usage. Our only concern is the integrity of the software;
> we don't want to see forking which is the most effective way to break
> a product.
Keep in mind a few points:
- The right to fork is a fundamental part of free software.
- Forks almost never happen to software that is actively maintained.
- The right to modify and redistribute modified versions is
necessary to fix bugs, and in case you decide you no longer
want to maintain the software (or get hit by a truck!).
- The so-called patch clause can be used as a last resort to
protect your work from gratuitous modifications.
> We keep your remarks for the next time the license
> issue comes up.
> Thanks again.
>
> Dr Scilab
Thanks for your reply. I hope to see scilab in the Debian
distribution in the future then.
May I forward your reply to the (public) debian-legal mailing list?
Thanks,
Peter Galbraith <psg@debian.org>
------- End of Forwarded Message
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