Re: Cactvs-license

[Michael Banck <mbanck@gmx.net>]

On Thu, Sep 13, 2001 at 04:39:43PM -0700, Walter Landry wrote:
> I don't think so.  Does the author just provide one big, fat,
> executable?  It sounds like there are other parts with an assumed
> directory structure.  That would prevent you, for example, from
> putting documentation in a separate place from the executables.  

There are a lot of files,  most of them in /usr/lib/cactvs/ 
The SuSE package has seperate documentation though. The package has an
installation script. I'll have to look in this first before I can tell
if it's worth packaging.

> All in all, this is just a terrible license.  Perhaps you could find
> out what he really wants, and suggest a suitable, already written
> license?  

As there is a message stating that CACTVS 'will be free software as soon
as the core structure is stable' I asked him about this. This is what he
answered:

"Unfortunately, this information is outdated. The software remains
free for educational, research and private use, but not for commercial
applications, and the source code of the core
library will not be published.
This is part of my distribution agreement with the
university - I am not allowed to distribute the software to
companies without a fee (which mainly goes to the university, and
must be priced comparable to other commercial software).
The univ. considers itself to be a copyright holder, and this
was the only way to get any distribution rights."

He didn't answer the non-free question yet, though.

thanks a lot,

Michael