Bug#618696: closed by Adam C Powell IV <hazelsct at debian.org> (Re: elmer: multiple licensing issues)

[Adam C Powell IV]

severity 618696 important
thanks

Hi Francesco,

On Sun, 2011-04-10 at 22:56 +0200, Francesco Poli wrote:
> reopen 618696
> thanks
> 
> 
> On Wed, 23 Mar 2011 18:51:55 +0100 Francesco Poli wrote:
> 
> > On Wed, 23 Mar 2011 14:15:09 +0000 Debian Bug Tracking System wrote:
> [...] 
> > > elmergrid/acx_metis.m4:
> > > 
> > > As you indicate, linking GPL objects with QPL objects creates a derived
> > > work which violates the copyright of the GPL objects.  That's not what's
> > > happening here.  The file acx_metis.m4 is an m4 script, not a binary, so
> > > there is no combined derived work, and no GPL violation.
> > 
> > OK, so there's no GPL-compatibility issue, thanks for clarifying!
> > 
> > Can we address the non-freeness of QPL-licensed files, though?
> > As I said, there are a number of precedents of QPL-licensed works that
> > were considered unsuitable for main.
> 
> Since the first licensing issue is still present (non-freeness of a
> QPL-licensed file), I am reopening the bug report.

Is QPL really considered non-DFSG-free?  The Wiki [1] includes it among
"Licenses whose status is unsettled", and although the example mentioned
of Qt can be in main because it is QPL/GPL (or was when this was
written), the acceptance of deal.II [2] into main indicates that the FTP
masters believe that QPL is DFSG-free.

 [1] http://wiki.debian.org/DFSGLicenses
 [2] http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/deal.ii.html

> I think the possible solutions are:
> 
>  (A) elmergrid/acx_metis.m4 should be replaced by a DFSG-free
> equivalent, if any is available.
> 
>  (1B) elmergrid/acx_metis.m4 copyright holders should be contacted
> and persuaded to re-license (or dual-license) the file under
> DFSG-free terms (better if GPL-compatible, but this is not a must).

I brought this file in from deal.II, and don't know of another METIS
check script...  Since deal.II is QPL, and is in main, then this file
and Elmer should also be permitted in main.

Though it should probably be closed, I will leave this bug open for now,
but it should not prevent Elmer from transitioning to testing.

-Adam
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