[AstroPy] message from SOFA chair

[Tim Jenness]

Thanks.


On Tue, May 7, 2013 at 3:34 AM, Scott Ransom <sransom at nrao.edu> wrote:

>
> On the subject of the SOFA license conditions, our Board member Patrick
> Wallace is continuing discussions he had on this topic last year, which
> resulted in changes to the license that enabled the Debian release to
> proceed.  Recent emails, which unfortunately were delayed by the spam
> filter problems, show that further discussion is needed, and Patrick is
> now in touch with Perry Greenfield, STScI Science Software Branch lead.
> The nub of the problem is that SOFA software has to address two
> conflicting requirements: (i) the insistence by free software groups
> that users should not be constrained in any way and (ii) the need to
> prevent "counterfeit" versions coming into circulation.  The second
> point is vital because SOFA software represents IAU standards and indeed
> is cited in other standards such as IERS Conventions.
>
>
>
Regarding the counterfeit argument, isn't this very similar to encryption
libraries where you want to make sure that you are using the official
library and not one you found on the internet that happens to have a back
door? OpenSSL and other libraries deal with this. People are far more
concerned about using the proper OpenSSL than using SOFA but the underlying
principal is the same. OpenSSL has a very straightforward licence (
http://www.openssl.org/source/license.html) which has clearly been approved
for distribution.

-- 
Tim Jenness
CCAT Software Manager
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