Hi Eduardo, Roberto, Jean Paul, Oswaldo, and others:
A small digression on software licences:
First, you have to make the distinction on what you mean by "Free":
1) You can say something is free because you didn't pay for it, this does not
imply any rights over the code, in source form or binary.
2) You can say that the software is "Free" if it follows the Free Software
Foundation philosophy, which means, the code is free in 4 ways [1]:
A program is free software if the program's users have the four essential
freedoms:
The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your
computing as you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition
for this.
The freedom to redistribute copies. (freedom 2).
The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others
(freedom 3).
As you can see, SIESTA does not comply to the Free Software Foundation type of
Licence (there are several), as Jean Paul said.
All available SIESTA licences can be read in
http://icmab.cat/leem/siesta/CodeAccess/selector.html.
On the other hand, the software can be free in the sence of the Free Software
Foundation, and you might still be paying for it, so
it is important to be clear about what you are refering to.
I think that you have used the term Free, in the sense of the first definition,
so yes, the software was free for you if you agreed with the licence.
Now, there are millons of discussions on the web about which licence is better
and why.
I have my own opinion, just like everybody else, I think it depends on the kind
of software, the objectives
of the project, etc. Every licence has pros an cons, so it is up to the
developers to choose.
About why the SIESTA licence is the way it is, I cannot tell you because I
don't know the reasons.
I just wanted to clarify a little bit the concepts of "Free"dom.
Tris
[1] - http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
Dr. Tristana Sondon
Institut de Ciencia de Materials de Barcelona
Campus de la UAB
08193 Bellaterra, Spain
----- Mensaje original -----
De: "Eduardo Gracia" <ed_gra...@yahoo.com.mx>
Para: siesta-l@uam.es
Enviados: Martes, 13 de Noviembre 2012 10:32:46
Asunto: [SIESTA-L] Why Siesta is Free?
Hi,
Certainly, Siesta is not fully free, I guess in a healthy environment, it is
not fair that someone make some profit using tools that belongs to others!
but for academic researches, we can have access to this and other codes for
free, promoting the generation of new knowledge! and because of that I am
completely grateful!
Thanks for your comments,
Eduardo
De: CROCOMBETTE Jean-Paul 148490 <jean-paul.crocombe...@cea.fr>
Para: "pasia...@cnea.gov.ar" <pasia...@cnea.gov.ar>; "siesta-l@uam.es"
<siesta-l@uam.es>
CC: Eduardo Gracia <ed_gra...@yahoo.com.mx>
Enviado: Martes, 13 de noviembre, 2012 8:59:11
Asunto: RE : [SIESTA-L] Why Siesta is Free?
Hi,
I have been working with Siesta for years and I like it very much. Siesta is a
very good code.
But, siesta is not free. Commercial and non academic institutions cannot
download it freely (see http://icmab.cat/leem/siesta/CodeAccess/selector.html
). Technically Siesta does not comply with the Free Sofware Foundation
principles.
I am not complaining or discussing this choice of the developpers, just
precising things a little bit.
Jean-Paul
________________________________________
De : siesta-l-requ...@uam.es [ siesta-l-requ...@uam.es ] de la part de
R.C.Pasianot [ pasia...@cnea.gov.ar ]
Date d'envoi : lundi 12 novembre 2012 17:25
À : siesta-l@uam.es
Cc : Eduardo Gracia
Objet : Re: [SIESTA-L] Why Siesta is Free?
Hi,
If you need to find good reasons for free software, just point your
navigator to the Free Software Foundation website.
Siesta is just a very small piece of that philosophy.
R.
On Mon, 12 Nov 2012, Oswaldo Dieguez wrote:
> Because the best things in life are free...
>
> Oswaldo
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Eduardo Gracia" < ed_gra...@yahoo.com.mx >
>> To: siesta-l@uam.es
>> Sent: Monday, November 12, 2012 8:35:16 AM
>> Subject: [SIESTA-L] Why Siesta is Free?
>> Hi everyone
>>
>>
>> I've been working with Siesta and other codes since my PhD, now I
>> recently start working in a full experimental research team. They
>> asked me which software I use, and as expected, they didn’t know about
>> Siesta and other codes such as Abinit, lammps (mainly free codes),
>> etc.
>>
>>
>> Then and interesting question comes, If these codes are good, why are
>> they free (for academic purpose)?
>>
>>
>>
>> Personally, I didn’t ask that before, since for me it has been quiet
>> natural that Siesta and other available codes are free, and we can
>> also find support, new version, bug fixes, etc.
>>
>>
>> So, right now I'm asking the same question to the developing team,
>> Why Siesta is free?
>>
>>
>> Regards
>> Eduardo
