Hi Eric,
Yes, we can change it to BSD.
The issue is how. We do not have control over the website and the SW package online. I download the source code and found the license you refer to.
Is this email sufficient or perhaps a letter? If you need a letter, maybe you could suggest the wording you need.
Regards,
Curt
From: Eric Kuzmenko [mailto:eric.gralco@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2016 6:13 PM
To: Curt THEISEN
Cc: Richard John HARRIS
Subject: Re: Updating CIDER's Research Software Agreement License For Use in Ngspice
Hey Curt,
The issues are that first clause restricts capitalizing from UCB's code and the third clause which requires compliance with U.S. export control laws.
The second clause, which requires attribution, is fine.
Here are three channels you can use to get more info: licensing@fsf.org, debian-legal@lists.debian.org, and info@sfconservancy.org
Please let me know if the license can/will be changed.
Best regards,
Eric Kuzmenko
On Thu, Oct 13, 2016 at 10:54 AM Curt THEISEN <curt@berkeley.edu> wrote:
Hi Eric,
This appears to be very old code. The author does not appear to be at UCB anymore.
What is the problem with the present license? I downloaded a compressed file that had the license you refer to. It appears to be very similar to BSD although it says you can’t charge a fee. Is that the issue?
Regards,
Curt
From: Eric Kuzmenko [mailto:eric.gralco@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2016 9:50 PM
To: cider-bugs@ic.berkeley.edu; karti@eecs.oregonstate.edu; mike.c@berkeley.edu; jafzal@berkeley.edu; curt@berkeley.edu; marc.oettinger@berkeley.edu; terri.sale@berkeley.edu; alehs@berkeley.edu; craig.kennedy@berkeley.edu; rharris@berkeley.edu; gmorgan@berkeley.edu; jsarracino@berkeley.edu; aceber@berkeley.edu
Subject: Updating CIDER's Research Software Agreement License For Use in Ngspice
Hello All,
I am not an Ngspice developer, although I am one of its many users. I am unable use Ngspice at work since it is found in the non-free Debian archive.
There is only one component of Ngspice left which does not comply with the Debian Free Software Guidelines; namely CIDER, which couples SPICE3F5 to the DSIM device simulator.
Unfortunately, I was unable to find David Alan Gates' (author of CIDER) email address to include him in this message.
According to the Debian mailing list, someone requested that CIDER's license be changed over a decade ago, but to no avail: https://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2005/08/msg00244.html
Fortunately, Bill Hoskins helped to remove the advertising clause from BSD Unix: ftp://ftp.cs.berkeley.edu/pub/4bsd/README.Impt.License.Change
Though Hoskins' work did not effect CIDER's Research Software Agreement License.
Please investigate the possibility of re-licensing CIDER1b1 to something more permissive, such as the 3-clause BSD License or the X11 license used by SPICE3F5; so that it may receive more attention from the community.
Otherwise, the alternatives would be to either reimplement CIDER's behavior, which would essentially be fruitless, or to wait out the remainder (48+ year) of its limited times duration.
Best regards,
Eric Kuzmenko