f2cl, cernlib, and maxima (Re: [Maxima] Release plans)

--- Richard Fateman <fateman@cs.berkeley.edu> wrote:
> The ACM software copyright is on this page:
> http://www.acm.org/pubs/copyright_policy/softwareCRnotice.html
> and contacting them by permissions@acm.org is suggested
> for commercial use.
> 
> Since GPL pretty much makes commercial use impossible,
> I think there is not much issue. Maxima is not commercial.
> But I'm not a lawyer, so feel free to check!

We need to contact them.  GPL doesn't prohibit commercial use at all -
what it does say is that if you sell it you need to make the source
code available under GPL and can't restrict anyone else reusing it
under GPL.  (I think.  If we want an authoratative definition I'm sure
Richard Stallman would be happy to explain it.)  For most normal
commercial products usage of the GPL is not really a viable option, but
it has been tried.

> As an author, I prefer the ACM position to GPL, in that it doesn't
> require me to turn over copyright to FSF, and it doesn't have the
> coercive nature of GPL.

You don't have to turn over copyright to the FSF in order to use the
GPL.  If you want them to be able to legally defend it for you, you
need to assign them copyright, but you don't need to surrender
copyright in order to use the GPL.
 
CY

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