Re: [ANN] high-precision mathematical library

[KHMan <keinhong@...>]

Miles Bader wrote:
> KHMan <keinhong@gmail.com> writes:
> > The correct way would be to do what the lcc people do:
> > http://drh.svnrepository.com/svn/lcc/tags/v4_2/CPYRIGHT
>
> p.s., Why is the lcc approach more "correct"?  The package in question
> _has_ a COPYING file (with a less obnoxious license than lcc).

It is in context of how the "commercialization intent" is handled. 
Let us disregard for a moment that I agree open licenses is the 
most beneficial to all in the case of such libraries.

Now, if the *intent* is to control access to commercial usage, 
then lcc has got it right. It is meant to allow broad usage in 
academia, while controlling commercial usage. And the license made 
that crystal clear, and it has always been so.

That's clarity of thought there.

But, to respond to your other posting, yes, I sounded harsh, but 
let me explain. One, the website is up to date and seems well 
maintained. Two, see this part of the package's page:

    "This software is provided for research use only.
    Incorporating this software in any commercial product
    requires a license agreement. This software is not warranted
    by the authors, the University of California or the Lawrence
    Berkeley National Laboratory."

"This software is not warranted" seems to be expressed as the BSD 
license. But yet, they say, "for research use only". This is very 
much like the intent of lcc, which may be called "for academic 
use". And they reinforce this with the second sentence, which 
implies that they want explicit one-to-one license agreements for 
commercial usage.

So, I stand by the impressions I got. The *intent* of the authors 
is important. I read in this case that the intent is "for research 
use only". For whatever reason, I think the BSD license in the 
package is not telling the whole story. Of course, it would be 
nice to get it clarified, but the feeling I have is that it may be 
part of a trend in US labs and academia to monetize or control IP 
rights, especially patent rights.

--
Cheers,
Kein-Hong Man (esq.)
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia