Dear Octave developers, I was looking for a complex-argument Bessel-function code to use in our own free-software package, and I noticed that Octave is using the "amos" software (by Don. Amos).
However, I am concerned that the amos software may be non-free. This software can also be found on Netlib (http://netlib.org/amos/), which says that they are derived from TOMS Algorithm 644: http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=214331 Unfortunately, all of the software in TOMS (ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software) is by default non-free, since the ACM license allows only noncommercial use: http://www.acm.org/publications/policies/softwarecrnotice (Note that ACM also claims copyright ownership of all TOMS code, since authors are required to make a copyright assignment to ACM prior to publication.) Have the Octave authors or the FSF investigated this and found a way to distribute the amos software legally under the GPL? (In some circumstances, the ACM has granted waivers of its copyright policy, see e.g. http://projects.scipy.org/scipy/changeset/6120 for a different TOMS package.) Regards, Steven G. Johnson ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ _______________________________________________ Octave-dev mailing list Octave-dev@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/octave-dev
