[Debian-med-packaging] Fwd: Re: SEG Packaging and License

[Laszlo Kajan]

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I am forwarding this email to the list in order to place it in a linkable public archive:

* The license terms of SEG: identification and masking of segments of low compositional complexity in amino acid sequences, emailed by one of
the authors, soon to be packaged.

Best regards,

Laszlo

- -------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: SEG Packaging and License
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:35:11 -0500
From: John Wootton <wootton at ncbi.nlm.nih.gov>
To: Guy Yachdav <gy47 at columbia.edu>
CC: Laszlo Kajan <lkajan at rostlab.org>, Burkhard Rost <rost11 at gmail.com>, Scott Federhen <federhen at ncbi.nlm.nih.gov>


OK Guy, here's the official wording that should be included in the README
for SEG or wherever you document the relevant copyright data for the SEG
source code and executables.   This should be fine for the Debian
standards.  Apparently, you cannot use a GPL license because that
contains more restrictive wording than these 'US Government Work'
conditions.  The relevant paragraph of the US Copyright Act (not needed in
this statement) is 17 U.S.C. # 105.

John

- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
                            PUBLIC DOMAIN NOTICE
               National Center for Biotechnology Information

  This software/database is a "United States Government Work" under the
  terms of the United States Copyright Act.  It was written as part of
  the authors' official duties as United States Government employees and
  thus cannot be copyrighted.  This software/database is freely available
  to the public for use. The National Library of Medicine and the U.S.
  Government have not placed any restriction on its use or reproduction.

  Although all reasonable efforts have been taken to ensure the accuracy
  and reliability of the software and data, the NLM and the U.S.
  Government do not and cannot warrant the performance or results that
  may be obtained by using this software or data. The NLM and the U.S.
  Government disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including
  warranties of performance, merchantability or fitness for any particular
  purpose.

  Please cite the authors in any work or product based on this material.

 Authors: John C. Wootton, Scott Federhen
          National Center For Biotechnology Information
          National Library of Medicine
          National Institutes of Health
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


On Thu, 17 Dec 2009, John Wootton wrote:

>
> Hi Guy,
>
> This is just an interim response - I have requested the apprpriate wording 
> and so on from an expert in the NCBI software sevices branch and will let you 
> know what he says.
>
> As far as I know, a 'US Govenment Work' like SEG is freely available for ever 
> for the public to use or reproduce without any restriction, and cannot be 
> copyrighted by anyone.  That was certainly our intention.  I forget the exact 
> US act or regulation, so let's wait for our expert's response.  It's probably 
> even more free and open than the Debian or GPL conditions.
>
> John
>
> On Thu, 17 Dec 2009, Guy Yachdav wrote:
>
>> Dear John and Scott,
>> 
>> My name is Guy Yachdav. I am working with Dr. Rost on maintaining the 
>> PredictProtein server. Sometime in the past we included the SEG program in 
>> our server. As we are now in the process of modularizing the software for 
>> the server we are also packaging its components for easy deployment on 
>> target machines. We would like to package SEG and make it available as a 
>> Debian package. Would that be acceptable to you? If so what license should 
>> we package it under? is a GPL suitable in this case?
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> Guy
>


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