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List: kde-edu-devel
Subject: [kde-edu-devel] update on copyright status of catalogs
From: Jason Harris <kstars () 30doradus ! org>
Date: 2003-06-26 15:07:09
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Hello,
This is a long message because I want to include my entire correspondence
with the various parties I contacted. In the following, lines preceeded by
": : " are my message, and lines preceeded by ": " are the response.
I first contacted Doug Mink, listed as the contact person at the SAO Telescope
Data Center website: http://tdc-www.harvard.edu/
: : Hello,
: :
: : I am unable to find any indication on your website, or at the CDS website,
: : about whether the SAO star catalog is in the public domain. Are there
: : any usage restrictions, and if so where can I get a description of them?
: :
: : At the old ADC website, they have an FAQ that says all catalogs are in
: : the public domain unless the catalog's ReadMe file explicitly says
: : otherwise. The SAO catalog's ReadMe at ADC says nothing about usage
: : or license or copyright...am I safe in assuming it is therefore in the
: : public domain?
: :
: : Sorry to be so pedantic; I am working with some Free Software people
: : and they take this stuff very seriously.
: :
: : many thanks,
: : Jason
Doug's reply (Tuesday 03:00 pm EDT):
: Jason,
: I think the SAO Catalog is freely usable but not public domain.
: I have to leave early today, but I'll check the printed volumes
: in our library tomorrow.
:
: -Doug
Unfortunately, I have not heard back from him.
I also contacted the address question@simbad.u-strasbg.fr to ask about data in
the CDS repository of astronomical catalogs
(http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cats/Cats.htx):
: : Hello,
: :
: : What is the legal copyright status of the data catalogs available from
: : the Astronomer's Bazaar at CDS? Are the data in the public domain?
: : Are there any statements made about how the data may be used on
: : the CDS website? I searched but found nothing.
: :
: : I am specifically interested in the SAO star catalog and the Hipparcos
: : star catalog.
: :
: : thank you,
: : Jason
I got a reply from Laurent Cambresy on Wednesday at 5:40 am EDT:
: Dear Jason,
: Catalogues available at CDS contain scientific data distributed
: for free, for a scientific usage. Only the expenses related to
: copying and mailing are charged if relevant.
: Companies including such data in their commercial products cannot
: charge their clients for the data. Furthermore, users must be informed
: of the origin of the data: this means an explicit reference to the service
: provided by the CDS and also to the original author(s) of each catalogue.
:
: best regards,
: Laurent Cambresy
This isn't clear enough for our purposes, so I asked for a clarification:
: : Dear Laurent,
: :
: : Thank you for the reply. If you don't mind, I'd like a clarification on
: : this point:
: : > Companies including such data in their commercial products
: : > cannot charge their clients for the data.
: :
: : I am the author of a Free Software astronomy program called KStars
: : (http://edu.kde.org/kstars), licensed under the GNU Genral Public
: : License (GPL). KStars itself is absolutely non-commercial; it is part of
: : the Educational module for KDE, a desktop environment for Linux and
: : other Unixes, which is also absolutely non-commercial. However, the
: : GPL does not prohibit other people from distributing my program, and
: : it does not prohibit them from charging a fee for the distribution, if
: : they wish, as long as they make the source code available to their
: : customers, and give their customers the right to freely redistribute
: : the source code and program. In other words, the program must
: : always remain licensed under the GPL. Does this break the above
: : clause?
: :
: : For example, there are many Linux companies (Mandrake, Redhat,
: : Suse, etc.) that distribute hundreds of Free software packages,
: : including KDE (and therefore KStars). They sell their Linux
: : Distribution on CDs to customers, but the entire distribution is
: : typically also available by ftp for no cost.
: :
: : Can KStars (and other GPL-licensed astronomy applications) make
: : use of catalogs like the SAO and Hipparcos star catalogs available on
: : CDS?
: :
: : (I should note that KStars is currently using the SAO catalog, which I
: : obtained from the NASA ADS repository. Their documentation stated
: : that the data catalogs were in the public domain.)
: :
: : Thank you very much.
: :
: : Sincerely,
: : Jason
Laurent was kind enough to follow-up at 06:20 this morning (EDT):
: Dear Jason,
:
: > KStars itself is absolutely non-commercial; it is part of the
: > Educational module for KDE, a desktop environment for Linux and
: > other Unixes, which is also absolutely non-commercial. However,
: > the GPL does not prohibit other people from distributing my
: > program,
:
: That's fine. As long as Kstars itself remains free there is no problem for
: using any catalogs we have here. Don't forget to mention somewhere
: which catalogs you use and their provenance (Hipparcos comes from
: ESA, SAO from USNO). By the way, we would recommend the use of
: Hipparcos rather than the SAO catalog. It is more accurate and goes
: deeper.
:
: best regards,
: Laurent
So I think I made it as clear as possible what the consequences of including
the catalogs in a GPL'd application might be, and they still have no problem
with the inclusion of their catalogs.
If this isn't good enough, then I would ask what exactly is the hypothetical
situation we are worried about here? KStars (and other GPL'd astronomy apps)
distribute these data catalogs under the GPL, so they cannot legally be made
proprietary, even if a company tries to make money by selling a KStars
derivative (an extremely remote possibility, IMO, since the derivative would
necessarily be GPL'd also).
Please let me know what you think.
regards,
Jason
--
KStars: A K Desktop Planetarium
http://edu.kde.org/kstars
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