[Caml-list] Copyright Clarifications

[Caml-list] Copyright Clarifications

[Marc Santoro]

In ocaml-3.07 (haven't checked other versions, but I assume this is also
present), there is a file: otherlibs/num/README

Near the bottom of the file is this paragraph:

---
The code in the bignum/ subdirectory is copyright INRIA and Digital,
and may be reproduced and distributed freely to non commercial usage
according to the conditions stated in the documentation of this package
(directory bignum/doc).
---

The directory bignum/doc is not present, though I used Google to find what
I believe to be that license:

http://www.di.ens.fr/~zen/license/bignumind.html

---
BigNum license
 This document and the source code of the BigNum package bear the marking
"Copyright Digital Equipment Corporation & INRIA 1989"

This documentation, and the source code of the BigNum package may be
reproduced and distributed freely to non commercial usage provided that
the following conditions are respected:
 Digital PRL or INRIA should be notified of the copy.
 The original Copyright notice should not be removed from the
documentation or from the source code under any circumstances.
 Any work using the BigNum package should state explicitly the use of such
package, and its origin by including the following sentence:  This work
uses the BigNum package developed jointly by INRIA an Digital PRL.
 If any modification is applied to the BigNum package, explicit statements
should identify the fact that such modifications have been made, by whom,
and where. These statements should not be removed in any further
distribution.
 Any work using extensively the BigNum package should be freely
distributed under conditions similar to the distribution of the BigNum
package.

INRIA and Digital Equipment Corporation make no representations, express
or implicit, with respect to this documentation or the software it
describes, including without limitations, any implied warranties of
merchandability or fitness for a particular purpose, all of which are
expressly disclaimed. INRIA and Digital Equipment Corporation or
subsequent distributors shall in no event be liable for any indirect,
incidental or consequential damages.
---

Given these terms, does the ocaml source distribution and derivative
binaries utilizing the num package contain software that is not
open-source/DFSG (by sections 1 & 6), and not commercially usable or
distributable?

http://www.opensource.org/licenses/
http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines

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Re: [Caml-list] Copyright Clarifications

[Xavier Leroy]

> [Licensing conditions for the "bignum" library used by OCaml's "num"
>  library]

You're correct that these conditions are a bit of a problem.  The
license you quote is that from the original BigNum distribution in the
late 80's, although the code OCaml uses was later improved at INRIA.

As you noticed, the BigNum code is copyright Digital and INRIA.  If it
were just for INRIA, that code would have been put under a standard
open source license a long time ago.  The problem is on the Digital
side: there have been a long chain of events (Digital PRL lab closed;
Digital acquired by Compaq; Compaq acquired by HP) that makes it
nearly impossible to deal with the copyright holders.

There are several ways to address this problem, such as replacing
BigNum by GMP (the low-level functions of GMP match very closely
BigNum's API), but this will take a while.  

In the meantime, users who are concerned about a potential licensing
problem for a commercial application can also consider other Caml
arbitrary-precision arithmetic libraries, such as MLGMP and Numerix
(see the Hump, section "Mathematics", at caml.inria.fr).  Feel free to
contact us (caml@inria.fr) directly if this licensing issue is a real
show-stopper for your application.

- Xavier Leroy

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