[SciPy-dev] TOMS 526 license?

[Robert Kern]

On Tue, Aug 12, 2008 at 18:31, Robert Kern <robert.kern at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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.

But it's worth asking, regardless. Alan?

-- 
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