Re: [ng-spice-devel] proposal for the letter development


To ng-spice-devel@ieee.ing.uniroma1.it
From Erik de Castro Lopo <erikd@zip.com.au>
Date Fri, 28 Apr 2000 23:49:16 +0000
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Manu Rouat wrote:
> 
> >
> > The problem we have is with the current Spice3f5 license. Although this
> > license has allowed many companies to release their own proprietary
>            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> > simulators, it is too restrictive to allow it to be used with other
> > free software. The problem is that it only allows use for "educational,
> > research and non-profit purposes" thereby restricting commercial use.
>                                             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> 
> This isn't consistent - - I believe that the core of the spice simulator
> was used by commercial vendors with the explicit permission of Berkeley
> (or perhaps they changed the license more recently). 

Thanks Manu, I agree that this is inconsistent. I have removed it from
the new version below as it really had no bearing on our request.

I also added a link to the GPL so they don't have to go looking for it. 

Paulo, is this letter being sent by email or snail mail? If its by
snail mail (which may be better as it seems more official) maybe
you should print out the GPL and add it as an attachment (snail mail
variety).


Ciao,
Erik
---

Dear Prof. Alberto Sangiovanni Vincentelli,

We are a voluntary group of engineers/researchers/students who would
like 
continue development of the electronic simulator Spice. We have a web 
page at :

     http://ieee.ing.uniroma1.it/ngspice/

Although the Spice program you helped to create is no longer being 
supported or actively developed by The University of California at
Berkeley,
it remains a standard for electronic circuit design. However, over the 
last decade, several other products (many commercial and based
originally 
on Spice) have surpassed it, in speed, versatility and up to date
process 
support.

The goal of our project is to start with the last UCB version, Spice3f5, 
and update it to add new features, improve the user interface, improve
the simulation speed and accuracy and improve the compatibility with
other Spice variants. Our aims include making this project free, open 
source software much like the Linux kernel and the GNU utilities.This 
would allow everyone including researchers and students to have access 
to a cheap (free), extensible, electronic simulator.

The problem we have is with the current Spice3f5 license. This license 
is too restrictive to allow it to be used with other free software. The 
problem is that it only allows use for "educational, research and 
non-profit purposes" thereby restricting commercial use. This makes it 
incompatible with free software licenses such as the GNU General Public 
License (GPL). There are two GPL licensed libraries (readline for 
improved command line handling and the GNU Scientific Library) which 
would greatly help our development efforts but which cannot be used 
with Spice3f5 unless the Spice3f5 license is changed. The GNU General 
Pubic License may be viewed here:

    http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

We also note that some have been referring to the Spice license as a BSD
license although this seems not to be the case. There have been a number
of 
different licenses issued by the University of California, including the 
numerous different BSD licenses, some (but not all) of which are
compatible 
with the GPL. 

Recently we heard that Dean Hal Varian had convinced the University of 
California, in June 1999, to issue a 'new style' BSD License for the BSD
operating system source code. It is our understanding that this new
style 
license is GPL compatible and if the Spice3f5 license was changed to
this 
one, it would allow us to use Spice3f5 code and code licensed under the 
GPL in the same piece of software while the rights of other Spice3 users
will remain as they are. Another possibility is to modify the current 
license to allow any use, or alternatively, to allow the the Spice3f5 
code to be used either under the current license or the GPL as the user 
pleases. Under all of these schemes, the copyright of the existing code 
remains with the University of California and the authors of any new
code 
would hold the copyright of their contributions.

Therefore, our question is: would it be possible for you (or rather for 
the University of California, the Spice3f5 copyright holder) to modify 
the license of Spice3f5 in one of the ways mentioned above? Doing so
would
allow the creation of a new improved Spice program which would be freely
available to everyone interested in using it.

We look forward to hearing from you.

With all our regards,
 
The NG-Spice Team
Paolo Nenzi
Michael Widlok
etc.....

http://ieee.ing.uniroma1.it/ngspice


-- 
+-------------------------------------------------+
     Erik de Castro Lopo     erikd@zip.com.au
+-------------------------------------------------+
Percussive Maintenance: The fine art of whacking the c**p out 
of an electronic device to get it to work again.

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