Ole Streicher <debian-de...@liska.ath.cx> wrote: > Has anyone already went through such an exercise and could assist me > in writing a nice E-mail? Or are there better ways to proceed?
I have assisted people in doing this sort of thing a few times. It sounds like the author is on board with releasing the code, which is crucial. It would be best if the author started the ball rolling, but lets see what we can do. Looking at http://www3.cadc-ccda.hia-iha.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/en/community/STETSON/daospec/agreement.txt it looks like Greg Fahlman would be the person to contact. Fahlman may forward you to someone else. I have attached a sample letter. Use as much or as little as you like. You need to let Peter Stetson look at your letter before you send it. Without his complete support you are unlikely to succeed. Cheers, Walter Landry Subject: Distributing Daophot through Debian Dear Dr. Fahlman, I am a developer for Debian, a free Linux distribution. Debian includes more than 37500 packages, precompiled software bundled up in a nice format that makes it easy to install. I would like to distribute a copy of the Daophot software through Debian. Daophot is an important piece of software, used by astronomers around the world. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1987PASP...99..191S Currently, to obtain Daophot, users must sign a non-disclosure agreement that prohibits further redistribution. http://www3.cadc-ccda.hia-iha.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/en/community/STETSON/daospec/agreement.txt I have contacted Peter Stetson, the author of Daophot. He said that, while he is willing to distribute Daophot under more permissive terms, he is obligated to follow any restrictions set down by the National Research Council of Canada. So this is why I am sending a letter to you. Ideally, Daophot would be distributed under a free or open source license. The National Research Council of Canada, through the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre, already distributes a number of pieces of astronomical software freely. https://code.google.com/p/opencadc/ https://code.google.com/p/caom/ https://github.com/canfar/vos Please let me know if it will be possible to modify the distribution terms for Daophot. If you are not the right person to contact, I would appreciate it if you could direct me to the right person. Thank you, Ole Streicher -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-legal-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20150208.231112.901590335374856807.wlan...@caltech.edu