FWIW - I'm forwarding the following from BF who is involved with potentially using some of these routines in FreeBSD.
Good luck. Regards, Dave Begin forwarded message: > From: "b. f." <bf1...@googlemail.com> > Date: August 9, 2012 10:47:47 AM PDT > To: Pedro Giffuni <p...@apache.org> > Cc: Dave Fisher <dave2w...@comcast.net>, "b...@freebsd.org" <b...@freebsd.org> > Subject: Re: Fwd: [all] NSWC and Apache license > Reply-To: bf1...@gmail.com > > On 8/9/12, Pedro Giffuni <p...@apache.org> wrote: >> Hi Dave; >> >> The files are in a repository from b...@freebsd.org, a ports committer >> that likes to play with math solvers. >> >> I am not sure about the license and the date (1993) suggests the authors >> may be difficult to contact. It looks like Public Domain to me. >> >> Hi bf. ... can you clarify the license of the NSWC routines? >> > > Although I am not a lawyer, and I cannot be certain (given the varied > provenance of the routines, and the fact that the library was > assembled from 1976-1993), I believe they are in the public domain, > because: > > 1) One of the primary authors, Morris, says in an accompanying > technical report (which has been marked for unlimited public > distribution): > > "The subroutines in the library originate from a variety of sources. > Approximately > 40% of the subroutines were developed at NSWCDD. The remaining > subroutines are from > government, commercial, and university research centers in the U.S. > and abroad... > > Since the beginning of the development of the library, no proprietary > or otherwise > restricted codes have been permitted in the library. Only general > purpose mathematical > subroutines for use by the entire NSWCDD scientific community have > been considered for > the library. Restrictions on the use of any library can severely > impair its value, both for > theoretical purposes (where the source codes are frequently of prime > importance), and for > general use in applications. Since expertise is so widely scattered, > reliable codes are so very > difficult to obtain, and many of the libraries do not provide source > code, the policy has been > to make the source code of the library readily available to the > general scientific community." ; > > 2) "works of the U.S. government" are not subject to domestic > copyright protection in the U.S.; and > 3) the library was widely distributed by NSWC-Dahlgren and JPL for a > number of years. > > I don't know how this would affect Apache-licensed software. The > mirrored files that you saw were for a FreeBSD Port of the NSWC > Mathlib that I have not yet committed to a public repository. In > addition to the original versions of NSWC Mathlib found at the > Canadian university website, and one or two other places, a few people > also freely distribute modified versions of some of the routines, and > later U.S. government reports contain some additions (see, for > example, some of the reports by Didonato and others that can be found > at: http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/ ). > > b. > > >> best regards, >> >> Pedro. >> >> >> >>> ________________________________ >>> From: Dave Fisher <dave2w...@comcast.net> >>> To: Pedro Giffuni <p...@apache.org> >>> Sent: Thursday, August 9, 2012 10:32 AM >>> Subject: Fwd: [all] NSWC and Apache license >>> >>> Hi Pedro, >>> >>> Do you have any knowledge or thoughts on this licensing question? >>> >>> Regards, >>> Dave >>> >>> Begin forwarded message: >>> >>>> From: Dave Fisher <dave2w...@comcast.net> >>>> Date: August 8, 2012 6:32:08 PM PDT >>>> To: legal-disc...@apache.org >>>> Cc: Commons Developers List <dev@commons.apache.org> >>>> Subject: Re: [all] NSWC and Apache license >>>> Reply-To: legal-disc...@apache.org >>>> delivered-to: mailing list legal-disc...@apache.org >>>> >>>> INAL, but I am a recovering Fortran programmer. >>>> >>>> I found the same repository under: >>>> >>>> http://ftp.twaren.net/FreeBSD/ports/local-distfiles/bf/nswc/Intro >>>> >>>> I think that these routines are public domain and there is no copyright >>>> on the manual. >>>> >>>> Really cool. >>>> >>>> Regards, >>>> Dave >>>> >>>> On Aug 7, 2012, at 11:36 PM, Sébastien Brisard wrote: >>>> >>>>> Hello, >>>>> I'm currently working on MATH-738, and am considering porting part of >>>>> the FORTRAN "NSWC Library of Mathematics Subroutines" [1] (Naval >>>>> Surface Warfare Center). >>>>> The website states >>>>> >>>>> "This software is made available, without cost, to the general >>>>> scientific community. The 1993 edition is an update of the 1990 >>>>> edition." >>>>> >>>>> Does that mean that porting it into Commons-Math is possible >>>>> (license-wise?). I would think it does... >>>>> >>>>> Thanks for your advice! >>>>> >>>>> Sébastien >>>>> >>>>> [1] http://www.ualberta.ca/CNS/RESEARCH/Software/NumericalNSWC/site.html >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>>> To unsubscribe, e-mail: legal-discuss-unsubscr...@apache.org >>>>> For additional commands, e-mail: legal-discuss-h...@apache.org >>>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>> To unsubscribe, e-mail: legal-discuss-unsubscr...@apache.org >>>> For additional commands, e-mail: legal-discuss-h...@apache.org >>>> >>> >>> >>> >>> --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@commons.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@commons.apache.org
