Subject: Re: How to read a binary floating-point file?
From: rpw3@rpw3.org (Rob Warnock)
Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2006 20:21:34 -0500
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Message-ID: <xM-dnZDhrbaDxlDZnZ2dnUVZ_qSdnZ2d@speakeasy.net>
Pascal Bourguignon  <pjb@informatimago.com> wrote:
+---------------
| Pascal Bourguignon <pjb@informatimago.com> writes:
| > CMUCL is Public Domain, not GPL.
| 
| Well at least some source files of CMUCL are.  I've only watched one.
+---------------

Almost all of CMUCL is "public domain". Where there are copyrights,
they are mostly of the "MIT" or "BSD" flavors:

  - Large hunks of CLX are "Copyright (C) 1987 Texas Instruments",
    but with an MIT-style permission clause. The "clx/defsystem.lisp"
    also adds "Portions Copyright (C) 1988, 1989 Franz Inc.", but
    retains the MIT-style permissions. Ditto "clx/doc.lisp", with
    the additional copyright holder being MIT.

  - The LOOP macro, "src/code/loop.lisp", is Copyright 1986 by MIT
    and 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992 by Symbolics. [MIT-style]

  - "code/pprint-loop.lisp" says "taken from Dick Water's XP", and
    copies MIT-style permissions said to have come from there, but
    there is no explicit copyright or date given.

  - "contrib/demos/demos.lisp" has a *bunch* of authors & dates
    credited, but only one actual "Copyright" [an MIT-style one].

  - Most of the PCL-based CLOS stuff is "Copyright (c) 1985, 1986, 1987,
    1988, 1989, 1990 Xerox Corporation" with MIT-style permissions,
    except for an added "must comply with all applicable United States
    export control laws" clause. [Well, duh!]

  - A massive amount of recent tuning on CLOS (and "fwrappers")
    is "Copyright (C) 2002, 2003 Gerd Moellmann" with BSD-style
    permissions. [ISTR some controversy about that at the time,
    something about Germany (where Gerd lives) not recognizing
    the concept of "dedicating to the public domain".]

Some of the non-core bits have specific more-restrictive copyrights, e.g.:

  - The SOAR benchmarks are "Copyright (c) 1985 Xerox Corporation. ...
    [use] is permitted for non-commercial research purposes, and
    it may be copied only for that use." [That's the only such
    "non-commercial" limitation I know of.]

  - The files "motif/{lisp,server}/timer-support.{lisp,c}" in the
    optional Motif-based debugger module are "Copyright (C) Marco
    Antoniotti 1994", with neither a reservation of rights nor
    any use permissions, so that one is... questionable. [Marco?
    Are you willing to make this an MIT- or BSD-style copyright?]


-Rob

-----
Rob Warnock			<rpw3@rpw3.org>
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