Re: JPL Planetary Ephemeris DE405

[Ben Finney <bignose@debian.org>]

Dave Hibberd <d@vehibberd.com> writes:

> […]
> See especially sections on Kernels Distribution and Kernels
> Redistribution. The intent is to allow anyone to use or redistribute
> as long as the files/kernels are not modified."

That intent explicitly does not permit distribution of modified works.
That permission is needed if the work is to be free software.

> Under my reading of their terms, it feels like a free license we can
> distribute the files under - they permit use, redistribution and
> modification as the user sees fit, and are only looking to limit their
> liability for support of any modified code.

I think it is non-free, for the reason above.

If the license conditions also do not permit redistribution of modified
works, the work is not DFSG-free. It cannot be in Debian.

If the license conditions, instead, do permit redistribution of modified
works, the license conditions are contrary to the stated intention,
above. We should consider carefully whether to honour the intent or the
license.

That conflict needs to be resolved, IMO. Do they intend to grant all the
DFSG freedoms to the work's recipient, or not?

> Can anyone confirm or suggest why I may be wrong in this
> interpretation?

Thank you for continuing to seek an unambiguous grant of free license in
this work.

-- 
 \     “Nothing worth saying is inoffensive to everyone. Nothing worth |
  `\    saying will fail to make you enemies. And nothing worth saying |
_o__)            will not produce a confrontation.” —Johann Hari, 2011 |
Ben Finney