[petsc-dev] (no subject)

[Xiaoye S. Li]

Iain Duff gave us the permission to distribute MC64 in SuperLU_DIST.
 SuperLU  Users' Guide (Page 14-15) mentioned 3 Copyright notices in the
entire packages. The one from Xerox (did with John Gilbert) does not have
any restriction.  MC64 is mostly free, but with the following restriction

"The user shall not pass this code directly to a third party without the
express prior consent of the authors.  Users wanting to licence their
own copy of these routines should send email to hsl at aeat.co.uk "

In fact, if the user asks HSL, they will get the newer version: HSL_MC64:
http://www.hsl.rl.ac.uk/catalogue/hsl_mc64.xml
Since I don't need the new function, I didn't ask for update.

I can see the following types of usages:

1) The users use SuperLU_DIST, and package it in their products.   This is
probably ok.
2) The users download SuperLU_DIST, but only extract MC64 for the other
purposes.  I think there is problem.

In any case, it's hard to control.   I did get a couple of commercial
users, they asked about not to use MC64 to avoid License issue.  I suggest
them to comment out the "row permutation" code (pivoting), and remove MC64.
 Their linear systems seem okay without MC64, and that's the option they
chose.

Sherry



On Wed, Nov 20, 2013 at 2:52 PM, Barry Smith <bsmith at mcs.anl.gov> wrote:

>
>    Rob,
>
>     Thanks.
>
>      But since SuperLU_dist is freely distributed doesn’t this mean one
> could always just get SuperLU_Dist whenever they wanted to use MC64AD? Note
> the SuperLU_Dist license
> http://crd-legacy.lbl.gov/~xiaoye/SuperLU/License.txt states that
> SuperLU_Dist can be included in other software including binary form but
> presumably this does not apply to MC64AD.
>
>     Sherri,
>
>       When your commercial buddies put SuperLU_Dist into some product do
> they also get permission from Iain to include MC64AD?
>
>
>    Barry
>
> On Nov 20, 2013, at 4:36 PM, Falgout, Rob <falgout2 at llnl.gov> wrote:
>
> > Hi Barry,
> >
> > We've already asked Sherri about this, and she says she has permission
> to use it in DSuperLU.  It's in hypre because we currently bundle DSuperLU
> in our release.
> >
> > -Rob
> >
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Barry Smith [mailto:bsmith at mcs.anl.gov]
> >> Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2013 2:23 PM
> >> To: Falgout, Rob; Xiaoye S. Li
> >> Cc: petsc-dev
> >> Subject:
> >>
> >>
> >>   Sherri and Rob,
> >>
> >>    I noticed both of you guys distribute MC64AD with your libraries
> which
> >> includes the following copyright/license statement.  Did you receive
> permission
> >> to distribute this source code from Iain or Jacko and how general is
> that
> >> permission, just for you or for other groups also? That is, is there an
> alternative
> >> license that allows this source code to be distributed?
> >>
> >>    Thanks
> >>
> >>    Barry
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> CCCCC COPYRIGHT (c) 1999  Council for the Central Laboratory of the
> >> CCCCC Research Councils.    All rights reserved.
> >> CCCCC PACKAGE MC64A/AD
> >> CCCCC AUTHORS Iain Duff (i.duff at rl.ac.uk) and Jacko Koster (
> jak at ii.uib.no)
> >> CCCCC LAST UPDATE 20/09/99 CCCCC C *** Conditions on external use *** C
> C
> >> The user shall acknowledge the contribution of this C package in any
> publication
> >> of material dependent upon the use of C the package. The user shall use
> >> reasonable endeavours to notify C the authors of the package of this
> >> publication.
> >> C
> >> C The user can modify this code but, at no time C shall the right or
> title to all or
> >> any part of this package pass C to the user. The user shall make
> available free of
> >> charge C to the authors for any purpose all information relating to any
> C
> >> alteration or addition made to this package for the purposes of C
> extending the
> >> capabilities or enhancing the performance of this C package.
> >> C
> >> C The user shall not pass this code directly to a third party without
> the C express
> >> prior consent of the authors.  Users wanting to licence their C own
> copy of these
> >> routines should send email to hsl at aeat.co.uk C C None of the comments
> from
> >> the Copyright notice up to and including this C one shall be removed or
> altered in
> >> any way.
> >>
> >
>
>
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