[MITgcm-devel] [MITgcm-support] MITgcm license

Jean-Michel Campin jmc at mit.edu
Thu Jan 12 18:26:23 EST 2017 

Hi Gael,

I made some changes to also include this file when using these
short-cup. Let me know if you see something wrong/missing.

Cheers,
Jean-Michel

On Thu, Jan 12, 2017 at 02:35:49PM -0500, gael forget wrote:
> Hi Chris et al.,
> I am not sure how CVS aliases work but maybe it would make sense to add LICENSE.txt to the lists 
> that I assume are behind MITgcm_code, MITgcm_verif_basic, MITgcm_tutorials, MITgcm_verif_all ?
> Cheers,
> Gael
> 
> On May 11, 2016, at 9:37 AM, Chris Hill <cnh at mit.edu> wrote:
> 
> > OK - lets see what feedback we get over the next month.
> > I would be happy to do this, but we should give
> > a chance for feedback.
> > 
> > BTW - should the top line maybe read
> > 
> > Copyright (c) 2016 MITgcm Developers and Contributors
> > 
> > there are things in the code base that are derived from a
> > range of sources that go beyond the group that is
> > usually thought of as the Developers.
> > 
> > Chris
> > 
> > On Wed, May 11, 2016 at 9:03 AM, Ryan Abernathey
> > <ryan.abernathey at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Yes, I know everyone is busy with real science, and in comparison this seems
> >> frivolous. I certainly don't wish to waste anyone's time with silly legal
> >> stuff. But you must admit that it is strange that such a mature software
> >> project does not have a license.
> >> 
> >> This doesn't have to be complicated. I propose we adopt the MIT license and
> >> be done with it. Simply create a LICENSE.txt file in the root directory of
> >> the project and paste in the following text.
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> MIT License
> >> 
> >> Copyright (c) 2016 MITgcm Developers
> >> 
> >> Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
> >> of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to
> >> deal
> >> in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
> >> to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
> >> copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
> >> furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
> >> 
> >> The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
> >> all
> >> copies or substantial portions of the Software.
> >> 
> >> THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
> >> IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
> >> FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
> >> AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
> >> LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING
> >> FROM,
> >> OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
> >> THE
> >> SOFTWARE.
> >> 
> >> On Wed, May 11, 2016 at 8:48 AM, Chris Hill <cnh at mit.edu> wrote:
> >>> 
> >>> Not really, but if there is interest in an unconventional approach
> >>> maybe we could try it! I think it is probably not a great idea though.
> >>> 
> >>> More seriously - if anyone wants to put forward
> >>> ideas or thoughts that would be great. The copyright stuff
> >>> is interesting. My understanding is it reflects the interests
> >>> of publishers lawyers (RIAA, Elsevier etc...) and "the
> >>> establishment" more than the will of "the people". There are
> >>> some famous Columbia law school lectures on this I think. I
> >>> don't stay up at night worrying about law suits. I do worry a
> >>> little about stirring up lawyers if we do decide to handle
> >>> this in a seriously conventional way.
> >>> 
> >>> Things in this realm that I do worry about are
> >>> making sure that people get adequate credit, DOIs
> >>> etc...
> >>> 
> >>> But mostly I am more losing sleep over tuning up and
> >>> speeding up 1-2km global calculations, internal
> >>> waves, calculating eddy fluxes, how we should
> >>> engage with CESM, maintaining adequate funding and
> >>> infrastructure to do all the things we could do etc....
> >>> 
> >>> For better or worse MIT does not have a law school.
> >>> 
> >>> Chris
> >>> On Tue, May 10, 2016 at 10:31 PM, Ryan Abernathey
> >>> <ryan.abernathey at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>> Chris,
> >>>> 
> >>>> Are you proposing the WTFPL for MITgcm? I would be in favor--it seems
> >>>> like
> >>>> an appropriately permissive license and in keeping with our general
> >>>> disregard for the norms of polite behavior.
> >>>> 
> >>>> This article provides a very informative discussion of why a license is
> >>>> important:
> >>>> 
> >>>> http://www.astrobetter.com/blog/2014/03/10/the-whys-and-hows-of-licensing-scientific-code/
> >>>> 
> >>>> Another good choice, and an obvious one, is the MIT license.
> >>>> http://choosealicense.com/licenses/mit/
> >>>> 
> >>>> -Ryan
> >>>> 
> >>>> On Tue, May 10, 2016 at 5:22 PM, Chris Hill <cnh at mit.edu> wrote:
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> There is an interesting thread on this topic here
> >>>>> 
> >>>>>  http://www.wtfpl.net/about/
> >>>>> and here
> >>>>>  http://www.wtfpl.net/faq/
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> On Tue, May 10, 2016 at 5:18 PM, Ryan Abernathey
> >>>>> <ryan.abernathey at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>>>> On Tue, May 10, 2016 at 5:14 PM, Dimitris Menemenlis
> >>>>>> <dmenemenlis at gmail.com>
> >>>>>> wrote:
> >>>>>>> 
> >>>>>>> you are welcome to use the MITgcm free of charge, as long as you
> >>>>>>> purchase
> >>>>>>> a beer per successful compilation for MITgcm developers :-)
> >>>>>> 
> >>>>>> 
> >>>>>> Clearly this has always been the de-facto license policy!
> >>>>>> 
> >>>>>> But really, is there nothing more official? I know many of the
> >>>>>> developers
> >>>>>> are strong advocates of open source. It seems strange not to clearly
> >>>>>> document the license of such a big project as MITgcm.
> >>>>>> 
> >>>>>>> 
> >>>>>>> (you would of course be included in the developers list and so would
> >>>>>>> benefit from some of the beer!)
> >>>>>>> 
> >>>>>>> On May 10, 2016, at 2:01 PM, Ryan Abernathey
> >>>>>>> <ryan.abernathey at gmail.com>
> >>>>>>> wrote:
> >>>>>>> 
> >>>>>>> What is the software license for MITgcm?
> >>>>>>> 
> >>>>>>> I found at least three support emails asking the question
> >>>>>>> http://mitgcm.org/pipermail/mitgcm-support/2012-January/007613.html
> >>>>>>> http://mitgcm.org/pipermail/mitgcm-support/2009-November/006334.html
> >>>>>>> http://mitgcm.org/pipermail/mitgcm-support/2005-November/003591.html
> >>>>>>> 
> >>>>>>> But no replies. Neither is there any license information in the
> >>>>>>> source
> >>>>>>> directory.
> >>>>>>> 
> >>>>>>> Could someone please resolve this issue? I want to know the license
> >>>>>>> information for a review paper I am involved with.
> >>>>>>> 
> >>>>>>> Best,
> >>>>>>> Ryan
> >>>>>>> 
> >>>>>>> 
> >>>>>>> 
> >>>>>>> 
> >>>>>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>>>>> MITgcm-devel mailing list
> >>>>>>> MITgcm-devel at mitgcm.org
> >>>>>>> http://mitgcm.org/mailman/listinfo/mitgcm-devel
> >>>>>>> 
> >>>>>> 
> >>>>>> 
> >>>>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>>>> MITgcm-devel mailing list
> >>>>>> MITgcm-devel at mitgcm.org
> >>>>>> http://mitgcm.org/mailman/listinfo/mitgcm-devel
> >>>>>> 
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> _______________________________________________
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> >>>>> http://mitgcm.org/mailman/listinfo/mitgcm-devel
> >>>> 
> >>>> 
> >>>> 
> >>>> _______________________________________________
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> >>>> http://mitgcm.org/mailman/listinfo/mitgcm-devel
> >>>> 
> >>> 
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> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
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> >> 
> > 
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> 



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