Re: licensing question for "nom.tam.fits"
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
Hi Francesco!
Am 28.08.2012 19:19, schrieb Francesco Poli:
> On Tue, 28 Aug 2012 15:37:46 +0200 Florian Rothmaier wrote:
>
>> Hi to everyone involved in debian-legal,
>
> Hello!
>
>>
>> I've got a licensing issue related to the astronomical Java library
>> "fits" ("nom.tam.fits") from Thomas McGlynn.
>>
>> The newest release can be obtained at:
>> http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/heasarc/fits/java/v1.0/v1.08.1/ .
>>
>> In the code, I find the following copyright statement:
>> /* Copyright: Thomas McGlynn 1997-1999.
>> * This code may be used for any purpose, non-commercial
>> * or commercial so long as this copyright notice is retained
>> * in the source code or included in or referred to in any
>> * derived software.
>> */
>> When I wrote an e-mail to Thomas McGlynn, he replied:
>> "I believe the lines you quote are themselves the entirety of the
>> license. There was no intent to associate this with any specific more
>> general license."
>
> Unfortunately these "license lines" do not seem to be enough to make the
> library clearly Free Software.
> I think they are far too vague and implicit:
>
> - the term "use" is ambiguous at best; does it just cover running a
> program that links with library? or is it implicitly intended to
> also cover other activities such as copying, modification,
> redistribution of verbatim and modified copies?
>
> - there's no explicit permission to copy and redistribute
>
> - there is a reference to derived software, but no explicit
> permission to create and distribute such derived software
>
> I believe that such "license lines" make the library unsuitable for
> distribution in Debian (main) or even in the non-free archive.
That was also my worry when I saw these lines.
>
>>
>> Now, I'm not sure how to proceed.
> [...]
>> I'd appreciate your help!
>
> If you want this library to be included in Debian, I think you should
> contact its copyright holder again and persuade him to re-license the
> library in a clearly DFSG-free manner, preferably under the terms of a
> well known and widely used Free Software license.
>
> I would personally recommend the copyright holder to re-license the
> library under the terms of the Expat/MIT license [1], which is very
> simple and similar in spirit to the goals that were probably in the
> mind of the drafter of the above quoted "license lines".
>
> [1] http://www.jclark.com/xml/copying.txt
After your reply, I contacted the copyright holder again and tried to
explain him how the situation is and forwarded him your licensing
suggestion. Now I have to wait for his reaction.
>
>>
>> Thanks in advance
>
> You're welcome, I hope this helps.
Yes, thank you very much, Francesco!
>
>> and please cc me in your replies since I'm not
>> subscribed to "debian-legal".
>
> Done.
>
> Bye and good luck with your persuasion effort!
>
>
Thanks and best regards,
Florian
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/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=BL/1
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Reply to: