[Debian-med-packaging] Your try to get a free libcolt-java (Was: r16752 - in trunk/packages/libcolt-java/trunk/debian: . patches)

Thu Jun 19 16:07:05 UTC 2014

Hi Tim,

On Thu, Jun 19, 2014 at 04:30:30PM +0100, Tim Booth wrote:
> We could try nagging Wolfgang via Twitter:
> 
> https://twitter.com/whoschek
> 
> hashtag = #freethecode

Very good idea.

> I would do so myself, but I'm not on Twitter.

I also ignore twitter - anybody who is twittering???

Thanks for your input

      Andreas.

> TIM
> 
> On Thu, 2014-06-19 at 14:21 +0100, Andreas Tille wrote:
> > Hi folks,
> > 
> > I'm stumbing again and again about this issue.  Can anybody help us
> > solving this nasty issue.  Currently I try to build packages from
> > libssj-java[1] (as predependency of some other package in our focus)
> > which also depends from libcolt-java.  I keep on thinking that it would
> > really help if some other / more people would add to my nagging to
> > upstream for some relicensing.  My last mail about this was here:
> > 
> >    https://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/debian-med-packaging/2014-February/025141.html
> > 
> > So please people, if you really regard my work as highly as it is
> > expressed from time to time it would *really* safe me some time if
> > people would fire up their MUA and send another mail to the HEP authors
> > to kill the stupid addition to the GPL from their way outdated code
> > nobody really remembers any more but which always fires back as
> > stumbling stone.   If you are interested to help and have not yet
> > an idea what to do please ask and I'll explain in more detail.
> > 
> > The thing with Tims patch below is that it does not solve the licensing
> > issue in my opinion and Thorsten as our man in the ftpmaster team has
> > not respondet yet.
> > 
> > Kind regards
> > 
> >         Andreas.
> > 
> > [1] svn://anonscm.debian.org/debian-med/trunk/packages/libssj-java
> > 
> > On Tue, Apr 22, 2014 at 10:06:20PM +0200, Andreas Tille wrote:
> > > Hi Tim,
> > > 
> > > many thanks for trying your luck to free libcolt-java.  It is really
> > > appreciated and I would really love if others would try to join your
> > > attempt.
> > > 
> > > However, when reading your comment of the patch:
> > > 
> > > On Tue, Apr 22, 2014 at 02:49:21PM +0000, Timothy Booth wrote:
> > > > Added: trunk/packages/libcolt-java/trunk/debian/patches/build_without_aida_interface_defs.patch
> > > > ===================================================================
> > > > --- trunk/packages/libcolt-java/trunk/debian/patches/build_without_aida_interface_defs.patch	                        (rev 0)
> > > > +++ trunk/packages/libcolt-java/trunk/debian/patches/build_without_aida_interface_defs.patch	2014-04-22 14:49:20 UTC (rev 16752)
> > > > @@ -0,0 +1,948 @@
> > > > +This patch forcefully rips out references to all the I*.java interface files
> > > > +that are not DFSG-free, having a "no military use" restriction.
> > > > +
> > > > +See: http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/debian-med-packaging/2014-April/025987.html
> > > > +
> > > > +However, it is ambiguous whether the files uder hep/aida/ref and hep/aida/bin are also
> > > > +under the non-free license.  Only Wolfgang Hoschek can answer this question and he has been
> > > > +sadly silent so far.  So I don't know if this patch actually solves anything or not.
> > > > +
> > > > +The code is (or should be) functionally equivalent since the interface defs contain no actual code,
> > > > +only function and class prototypes, and the process of removing them was mostly a matter of
> > > > +find-and-replace of the interface names with the implementing class names.  However the code
> > > > +is certainly less neat after this patch - especially as I forced VariableAxis to inherit from
> > > > +FixedAxis - and also any code which links against Colt and references the I* classes will fail
> > > > +to build and will require patching too.
> > > > +
> > > > +-- Tim Booth <tbooth at ceh.ac.uk>, April 2014
> > > 
> > > I think we are not done yet.  Quoting xdocs/license.xml says:
> > > 
> > > Packages hep.aida.*
> > >   ...  with the exception that any usage related to military applications
> > >        is expressly forbidden
> > > 
> > > So I think even a patch to the existing code is not sufficient since the
> > > patch does not kick the code out of the source package.  We rather need
> > > something like
> > > 
> > >    Files-Excluded: src/hep/aida
> > > 
> > > in d/copyright to fullfill the requirement to get the package accepted
> > > in Debian main.  I wonder whether the package
> > > 
> > >    libjas-plotter-java
> > > 
> > > might provide some replacement code or whether we could make use of
> > > 
> > >    http://aida.freehep.org/download.thtml
> > > 
> > > (after packaging it following the scheme of other freehep packages.)
> > > 
> > > Or we try again to nag the only person who is involved in this code who
> > > was actually at least answering and did not covered in total silence.
> > > May be we really try the approach I suggested here:
> > > 
> > >    https://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/debian-med-packaging/2014-February/025141.html
> > > 
> > > Kind regards
> > > 
> > >      Andreas.
> > > 
> > > -- 
> > > http://fam-tille.de
> > > 
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Debian-med-packaging mailing list
> > > Debian-med-packaging at lists.alioth.debian.org
> > > http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/debian-med-packaging
> > > 
> > 
> 
> -- 
> Tim Booth <tbooth at ceh.ac.uk>
> NERC Environmental Bioinformatics Centre 
> 
> Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
> Maclean Bldg, Benson Lane
> Crowmarsh Gifford
> Wallingford, England
> OX10 8BB 
> 
> http://nebc.nerc.ac.uk
> +44 1491 69 2705
> 

-- 
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