[SciPy-dev] TOMS 526 license?

[Robert Kern]

On Tue, Aug 12, 2008 at 17:25, Pauli Virtanen <pav at iki.fi> wrote:
>
> I noticed that code from ACM TOMS 526 was added to a branch in the Scipy
> repository.
>
> This may be a silly question, but I'll ask it just to be on the safe
> side: in case this code is going to eventually land in Scipy proper, did
> you check the ACM license conditions? It says here:
>
>        http://toms.acm.org/Authors.html#CopyrightandUseAgreement
>
> that the TOMS codes fall by default under the ACM license, which is not
> really either BSD or GPL compatible. (Unfortunately, the netlib.org codes
> don't carry a license blurb...) Or has the situation for 526 been
> otherwise arranged, or was the situation different in 1978 when it was
> published?

Akima was an employee of the Federal Government (US Dept of Commerce).
Near as I can tell, the code is public domain, and the ACM cannot
claim copyright over it.

-- 
Robert Kern

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless
enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as
though it had an underlying truth."
 -- Umberto Eco