Bug#741112: libfreefoam1: libscotchDecomp.so.0.1.0 is GPL-licensed but links with GPL-incompatible library

[Francesco Poli (wintermute)]

Package: libfreefoam1
Version: 0.1.0+dfsg-1
Severity: serious
Justification: Policy 2.3
User: debian-science-maintainers at lists.alioth.debian.org
Usertags: scotch-license-issues


Hello,
the library /usr/lib/freefoam/libscotchDecomp.so.0.1.0 is apparently
licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL v3 or later (without any
special exception), but it links with

  => libscotch-5.1.so
  => libscotcherrexit-5.1.so

which are released under the GPL-incompatible terms of the CeCILL-C
v1.0 license.

Please refer to the related bug #740463 for some further details
about the SCOTCH licensing issues.

I think the possible solutions to the issue for freefoam are, in
descending order of desirability:

 (A) SCOTCH copyright holders should be contacted and persuaded to
re-license (or dual-license) it under GPLv2-or-later-compatible terms

 (B) SCOTCH should be substituted with a GPLv2-or-later-compatible
replacement, if any is available (METIS seems to be at least
GPLv3-or-later-compatible, see https://bugs.debian.org/740463#15 )

 (C) the copyright holders of libscotchDecomp.so.0.1.0, and of any
GPL-licensed library or program (libOpenFOAM.so.1,
libdecompositionMethods.so.1, and so forth) which is linked with
libscotchDecomp.so.0.1.0, should be asked to relax the copyleft
(for instance by switching the LGPL) or add license exceptions that
give permission to link their works with code released under
CeCILL-C v1.0


Since the best solution is (A), I renew my call for help to push
in the direction of {re|dual}-licensing SCOTCH under the GNU LGPL v2.1:
again, please see https://bugs.debian.org/740463#5 for the full story.

Thanks for your time!