Please choose a free license for fastml (Was: Test failures when trying to package Gubbins for Debian)
Sorry for the wrong / confusing subject: I forgot to rename to
Please choose a free license for fastml
Andreas.
On Mon, Jul 06, 2015 at 04:15:03PM +0200, Andreas Tille wrote:
> Hi Tal,
>
> I'm writing you on behalf of the Debian Med team which has the objective
> to package all free software that might be relevant in medicine and
> biology for official Debian. You might like to have a look into the
> software in the field of biology inside Debian[1].
>
> Recently we received the request to package Gubbins from Sanger
> institute[2] (Andrew Page as one of the authors in CC) and I noticed
> that it depends from your software FASTML. (Actually Gubbins is using
> an adapted version of FASTML which is called fastml2 and maintained at
> Github[3].)
>
> To fulfill the dependency requirement of Gubbins we also would need to
> package FASTML but I noticed that the website states the following
> Copyright:
>
> To modify the code, or use parts of it for other purposes,
> permission is requested. Please contact Tal Pupko
> Please note that the use of the FASTML programs is for academic use
> only
>
> The choice of this license is a bit unfortunate since the first part
> would not enable a distribution by Debian since we ship only software
> that allows unrestricted modification to our users. For instance in
> case of a potentially detected security problem it would not be
> acceptable for the security team to ask for permission to fix the
> problem quickly since this would be an inacceptable delay.
>
> The second restriction you are applying is the academic use only.
> Software with such kind of license unfortunately needs to go to the so
> called non-free section in Debian which means the package does not
> belong to the official Debian distribution. The reason is that it is in
> conflict with item 5. and 6. of the Debian Free Software Guidelines[4].
> The non-free section has several consequences for the package itself
> (for instance it is excluded from typical quality assurance means like
> regular fresh builds and test suite runs) and for its dependencies - in
> this specific case Gubbins. Since Gubbins would depend from a package
> in non-free it also can not be included in the main Debian distribution
> even if it is covered by a free license. It could at best target at the
> so called "contrib" section (=free license but depending from package in
> non-free) with the same consequences that the usual quality means are
> not applied.
>
> I wonder whether you might be willing to reconsider the license of
> FASTML for the profit of Gubbins and to my personal experience also to
> the profit of FASTML itself. In the past we have discussed licensing
> issues with several authors of software (latest prominent example was
> Joe Felsenstein with phylip which is now delivered under BSD license).
> Besides the extra eyes that might look onto your code and provide
> enhancements the inclusion into Debian might bring you some extra
> users - or at least some estimation how many Debian users are using
> FASTML (see on [1] the numbers of the so called popularity contest.
>
> So it would be really great if you would consider a free license. Feel
> free to ask us for advise which one of the usual licenses might fit best
> in your case.
>
> Kind regards
>
> Andreas.
>
> [1] http://blends.debian.org/med/tasks/bio
> [2] https://sanger-pathogens.github.io/gubbins/
> [3] https://github.com/AidanDelaney/fastml2
> [4] https://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines
>
> --
> http://fam-tille.de
>
>
> --
> To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-med-REQUEST@lists.debian.org
> with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org
> Archive: [🔎] 20150706141503.GE32453@an3as.eu">https://lists.debian.org/[🔎] 20150706141503.GE32453@an3as.eu
>
>
--
http://fam-tille.de
Reply to: