Re: [ng-spice] Letter to Berkely CAD Group


To ng-spice@ieee.ing.uniroma1.it
From Manu Rouat <emmanuel.rouat@wanadoo.fr>
Date Thu, 13 Jan 2000 21:47:41 -0500
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Reid van Melle wrote:

> 
> > BSD license prevent use from using pieces of spice code into our
> > simulator, thus slowing down the entire development process.
> 
> This is not the case at all.  In fact, you are free to use pieces of Spice 
>code
> in your own simulator and change the license to whatever you wish.  This is
> exactly what hundred of companies have been doing for years (commercial
> licenses) resulting in a plethora of Spice versions in the marketplace.


This is not the problem - the main problem is a clause in the BSD licence
that requires that derived works 'advertises' where the original came from.
Basically you have to aknowledge the origin of your software. The GPL forbids
explicitely any such restriction. This clause is known as the 'obnoxious 
advertisement clause' by the guys at the FSF. The result is that you cannot
use BSD licensed code in GPL code.

All the spice derivatives that I know do comply to that clause (but they don't
care since they are not GPL)

I know, it's silly, but it's the truth.


manu

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