Bug#251885: ITP: cgal -- C++ library for computational geometry

[Joachim Reichel <joachim.reichel@gmx.de>]

Hi Toni,

> How does upstream release version 3.1 of CGAL, actually fixes these
> issues?

The license of some files was changed such that all files in the Kernel
and Support Library are licensed under LGPL, the files in the Basic
Library are licensed under QPL. In particlar, all *.C files that end up
in libCGAL.so are licensed under LGPL.

> I don't see any changes in the license since lgpl/qpl dual
> licensing.

Previously, LGPL and QPL licenses were mixed for files in the Kernel and
Support Library. This has been changed. BTW, there is no dual licensing,
each file is either under LGPL or QPL.

Unfortunately, no all license problems were resolved with the 3.1
release. Contrary to the statement in the top-level LICENSE file, there
are many files without any copyright notice (and there is no "default"
license clause).

1) Source files in include/CGAL/ and src/. No big deal, the appropriate
copyright headers "just" need to be added.

2) Many, many files in demo/ and examples/ (source as well as images,
data, ...)

3) The license situation for the documentation is unclear. Currently,
the documentation is not part of the tarball, but there are plans to
include the source for the documentation. [Part 3) is a minor problem;
if 1) and 2) are solved, one could also remove the documentation from
the Debian tarball and point users to the PDF on the CGAL website.]

I'm in contact with the CGAL developers. I hope that these license
issues are fixed in 3.2 which is scheduled for late spring.


Regards,
  Joachim