[GNU-linux-libre] Re: License for the mersene twister implementation

[Rubén Rodríguez Pérez]

> Hello, our intention (co-inventor Takuji Nishimura and me)
> is that make the algorithm as free as possible.
> Thus, it is our pleasure to make a GNU GPL licensed version.

Thank you, these are wonderful news.

> Excuse me, but could you please specify what we should do
> for this purpose: we lack very basic knowledge on licensing
> matters.

To avoid any problems that might stop current distributors from
updating the file, you should dual license it under either the Artistic
License, or the GNU GPL 3 or any later version.

To do so, you can use the following header for the file (replacing the
paragraphs 2 and 3 of the current header):

/* Copyright (C) 1997, 1999 Makoto Matsumoto and Takuji Nishimura. */
/*                                                                 */
/* This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or   */
/* modify it under the terms of either:                            */
/*                                                                 */
/* a) the GNU General Public License as published by the Free      */
/* Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at    */
/* your option) any later version, or                              */
/*                                                                 */
/* b) the "Artistic License"                                       */
/*                                                                 */
/* This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, */
/* but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of  */
/* MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.            */
/*                                                                 */
/* You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public       */
/* License and the Artistic License along with this program.       */
/* If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/> and                  */
/* <http://dev.perl.org/licenses/>                                 */

You can apply it to the original source file I'm attaching -extracted
from BerkeleyDB 4.8- and send it back to me with copy to:

address@hidden (to have a public record of distribution)
address@hidden (for them to update their source)

For more info on how to use the GPL license for your work, read
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-howto.html or contact with the Free
Software Foundation License Compliance Lab: address@hidden

Thank you again,
Rubén Rodríguez.


> > Mr Makoto Matsumoto,
> > 
> > I've found that the file mt19937db.c included in the BerkeleyDB
> > package as distributed by Oracle, and written by you and Takuji
> > Nishimura, is licensed under the "Artistic license". This license is
> > listed as non-free by the Free Software Foundation[1], making the
> > package unsuitable for free GNU/Linux distributions [2].
> > 
> > I've also found similar implementations[3] distributed by you under
> > the terms of the  GNU GPL, so I'd like to request you to release the
> > BerkleyDB file under a free software license too. That way we could
> > replace the file instead of writing a new implementation.
> > I'm attaching the mt19937db.c file included in bdb-4.8.24.
> > 
> > Thank you for your time,
> > Ruben Rodriguez.
> > 
> > 1:
> > http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#NonFreeSoftwareLicense
> > 2: http://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html 
> > 3: http://www.mindspring.com/~pate/cpp/mersenne.c

mt19937db.c
Description: Text Data