Open source library proxying to a closed source library
Hello,
Several months ago, I asked a question [1] concerning inclusion of
copyrighted headers in a project I want to distribute in debian.
I have since contacted the copyright owners of the different libraries
I interact with, asking them for permission to redistribute their
header in my project. So far, the answers are positive. I have mails
from gurobi stating that I am allowed to redistribute the said
headers, and I have to let them know if I need something more formal.
And IBM engineers said they would talk with their legal department.
So, I am allowed to redistribute the gurobi header within my project,
but not to relicense it (so far). I want to include the following
statement in the file, to explain that the said header was taken from
a closed source software and is that the MIT license does not apply
here.
/*
* Copyright 2010-2012, Gurobi Optimization, Inc.
*
* Redistribution of this file as part of lazylpsolverlibs has been kindly
* authorized by Gurobi. However, the license of the rest of this project
* does *not* apply to this file.
*
* It is generally fine to redistribute this file in any distribution package
* (pick any of your favourite linux/bsd flavor) of this project.
* For any other purpose, you may want ask Gurobi directly. If you are unsure
* about what you can/should do with this file, the general recommendation is
* to ask them.
*
* I am not a lawyer. This statement is purely informational and holds no
* legal value.
*
*/
I know that automatically makes my software non free, but do you think
that at least, this software can be distributed in the non-free
repository? Should I come back to the copyright owner and if so, what
should I ask for?
[1] http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2012/07/msg00012.html
Cheers,
Christophe-Marie
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