[Debian-pan-maintainers] Package: Debian PaN: McCode: licencing

[Erik B Knudsen]

Hi there,
Thanks for the comments and thoughts. I'd like to mention one thing in 
relation to this.
There is an add-on package named AstroX, which is basically is a set of 
components that have to do with X-ray telescopes. At present this is 
published under GPLv2, as agreed with ESA. As for the case with nsx - we 
could simply allow (as it is right now) that package to be a separate 
add-on, but I would prefer to include it in the normal distro to promote 
cross-benefits.

To summarize - if we want to move to GPLv3 - I would have to/like to 
clear this with ESA. This should not be a problem as they suggested v3 
but accepted v2 on my request.

I hope that made any sense...
cheers
Erik

On 18/11/2021 16:59, FARHI Emmanuel wrote:
> Hi Roland,
> 
> thanks for your comments about licencing in McCode. I'm writing through 
> the pan-maintainers mailing list so that we keep track of our thoughts, 
> as well as to theMcCode Danish team leaders.
> 
> You raise a licencing issue regarding nxs and ncrystal.
> 
> As a start, The choice of a GPL2 for McCode is mainly historical, but it 
> also related to how McCode works. McCode (McStas + McXtrace) converts a 
> text file into a valid C code, which is then compiled and executed for a 
> beam-line simulation. The generated C file (flex+bison) can be 
> considered as a derived work that some users have used as input for 
> other projetcs. Then, the whole discission boils down into how to 
> consider that generated C code, as part of a derived work, in terms of 
> licence. Is a GPL2 -> GPL3 move viable in this respect ? If yes, then, 
> as discussed today by phone, McCode could move to GPL3, or other suggestion.
> 
> ncrystal: the lib is Apache 2, which is incompatible with the GPL2 
> adopted by McCode, but would be with a GPL3.
> 
> nxs: <https://www.helmholtz-berlin.de/people/boin/nxs_en.html> 
> <https://www.helmholtz-berlin.de/people/boin/nxs_en.html>
> Its licence is a pure HZB one, which prevents commercial use. It is 
> stated as *not* in the public domain. As a definitive solution, we could 
> exclude libnxs and its only usage elsewhere, 
> mcstas-comps/contrib/Sample_nxs.comp. There are a few data files as well 
> in mcstas-comps/data/*.nxs Then, there is no issue with the static 
> compilation (that could anyway in principle be dynamic).
> 
> Cheers, Emmanuel.
> 
> 
> -- 
> / ___|__/\_| |   | ____|_ _| |      FARHI Emmanuel
> \___ \\ | |   |  _|  | || |      Div Exp/Data Reduction and Analysis Team
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-- 
Erik Bergbäck Knudsen, Research Engineer         | DTU | morituri
NEXMAP, DTU Fysik, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark  |<>-<>|    te
phone: (+45) 2132 6655                           |<>-<>| salutant