Hey Curt, I am not a lawyer so my advice on this matter may be erroneous. Therefore, I am choosing to include the Free Software Foundation, Debian's legal group, and the Software Freedom Conservancy to weigh in; please advise us on what should be done.
Here is something I believe you may be able to do (feel free to correct me): If you have write access to the UCB's ftp server: ftp://ftp.cs.berkeley.edu/pub/ You could issue another blanket statement for CIDER. Something along the lines of "Effective immediately, licensees and distributors of CIDER1b1 may choose to use the terms of the 3-clause BSD license when distributing CIDER1b1 or its modified works." Following the statement with the license itself. Best regards, Eric Kuzmenko On Thu, Oct 20, 2016, 11:44 AM Curt THEISEN <c...@berkeley.edu> wrote: > Hi Eric, > > > > Yes, we can change it to BSD. > > > > The issue is how. We do not have control over the website and the SW > package online. I download the source code and found the license you refer > to. > > > > Is this email sufficient or perhaps a letter? If you need a letter, maybe > you could suggest the wording you need. > > > > Regards, > > Curt > > > > *From:* Eric Kuzmenko [mailto:eric.gra...@gmail.com] > *Sent:* Thursday, October 13, 2016 6:13 PM > *To:* Curt THEISEN > *Cc:* Richard John HARRIS > *Subject:* Re: Updating CIDER's Research Software Agreement License For > Use in Ngspice > > > > Hey Curt, > > > > The issues are that first clause restricts capitalizing from UCB's code > and the third clause which requires compliance with U.S. export control > laws. > > The second clause, which requires attribution, is fine. > > Here are three channels you can use to get more info: licens...@fsf.org, > debian-legal@lists.debian.org, and i...@sfconservancy.org > > Please let me know if the license can/will be changed. > > > > Best regards, > > > > Eric Kuzmenko > > > > On Thu, Oct 13, 2016 at 10:54 AM Curt THEISEN <c...@berkeley.edu> wrote: > > Hi Eric, > > > > This appears to be very old code. The author does not appear to be at UCB > anymore. > > > > What is the problem with the present license? I downloaded a compressed > file that had the license you refer to. It appears to be very similar to > BSD although it says you can’t charge a fee. Is that the issue? > > > > Regards, > > Curt > > > > *From:* Eric Kuzmenko [mailto:eric.gra...@gmail.com] > *Sent:* Wednesday, October 12, 2016 9:50 PM > *To:* cider-b...@ic.berkeley.edu; ka...@eecs.oregonstate.edu; > mik...@berkeley.edu; jaf...@berkeley.edu; c...@berkeley.edu; > marc.oettin...@berkeley.edu; terri.s...@berkeley.edu; al...@berkeley.edu; > craig.kenn...@berkeley.edu; rhar...@berkeley.edu; gmor...@berkeley.edu; > jsarrac...@berkeley.edu; ace...@berkeley.edu > > > *Subject:* Updating CIDER's Research Software Agreement License For Use > in Ngspice > > > > Hello All, > > > > I am not an Ngspice developer, although I am one of its many users. I am > unable use Ngspice at work since it is found in the non-free Debian archive. > > There is only one component of Ngspice left which does not comply with > the Debian Free Software Guidelines; namely CIDER, which couples SPICE3F5 > to the DSIM device simulator. > > Unfortunately, I was unable to find David Alan Gates' (author of CIDER) > email address to include him in this message. > > According to the Debian mailing list, someone requested that CIDER's > license be changed over a decade ago, but to no avail: > https://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2005/08/msg00244.html > > Fortunately, Bill Hoskins helped to remove the advertising clause from BSD > Unix: ftp://ftp.cs.berkeley.edu/pub/4bsd/README.Impt.License.Change > > Though Hoskins' work did not effect CIDER's Research Software Agreement > License. > > Please investigate the possibility of re-licensing CIDER1b1 to something > more permissive, such as the 3-clause BSD License or the X11 license used > by SPICE3F5; so that it may receive more attention from the community. > > Otherwise, the alternatives would be to either reimplement CIDER's > behavior, which would essentially be fruitless, or to wait out the > remainder (48+ year) of its *limited times* duration. > > > > Best regards, > > > > Eric Kuzmenko > >
