Re: randlib licence

[Petr Gajdos]

Yes,
I have ranlib/README nearly by heart. I regret :(.
Petr

Dne středa 11 červenec 2007 15:49 David Bateman napsal(a):
> Petr Gajdos wrote:
> > Hi David,
> >
> > first, I must say, that I haven't another wish than leave octave as is,
> > really.  As I stated before, I am packager of octave only and law is far
> > away from my mind :). But, can you define notion "believe", which you use
> > two times before? Your answer has some presumptions, doesn't it?
>
> I'm an engineer and not a lawyer.. I therefore use "believe" in the
> context of legal advice on the source code in that is my opinion. Your
> lawyers might see differently
>
> > SUSE layers've asked me, and I've asked you. And I've asked authors of
> > randlib themself. After few weeks, there's no reply at all (btw. thank
> > you for your replies). I am really sorry, but I need *yes or no*, not
> > something in the mindst of. Patch I send you I rate as temporary
> > solution, I preffer remove it as soon as posible from factory. Let's
> > solve it before 10.3!
> > Petr
>
> Hey the code is really old, it doesn't surprise me that no one responded..
>
> The published code in ACM is under the ACM license. However, the authors
> have every right to republish this code under any other license they
> like. They have done so in that they RANDLIB license states..
>
> "We place the Randlib code that we have written in the public domain"
>
> So the randlib code that the authors wrote is public domain.. So what
> didn't they write? This was the crux of my previous doubts.. So I dug a
> little more, and in the randlib/README it clearly identifies the code
> from other sources as
>
> <quote>
>                                SOURCES
>
> The following routines,  which  were  written by others   and  lightly
> modified for consistency in packaging, are included in RANDLIB.
>
>                         Bottom Level Routines
>
> These routines are a transliteration of the Pascal in the reference to
> Fortran.
>
> L'Ecuyer, P. and  Cote, S. "Implementing  a Random Number Package with
> Splitting  Facilities."  ACM  Transactions   on Mathematical Software,
> 17:98-111 (1991)
>
>                              Exponential
>
> This code was obtained from Netlib.
>
> Ahrens,  J.H. and  Dieter, U.   Computer Methods for Sampling From the
> Exponential and Normal  Distributions.  Comm. ACM,  15,10 (Oct. 1972),
> 873 - 882.
>
>                                 Gamma
>
> (Case R >= 1.0)
>
> Ahrens, J.H. and Dieter, U.  Generating Gamma  Variates by  a Modified
> Rejection Technique.  Comm. ACM, 25,1 (Jan. 1982), 47 - 54.
> Algorithm GD
>
> (Case 0.0 <= R <= 1.0)
>
> Ahrens, J.H. and Dieter, U.  Computer Methods for Sampling from Gamma,
> Beta,  Poisson  and Binomial   Distributions.    Computing, 12 (1974),
> 223-246.  Adaptation of algorithm GS.
>
>                                 Normal
>
> This code was obtained from netlib.
>
> Ahrens, J.H.  and  Dieter, U.    Extensions of   Forsythe's Method for
> Random Sampling  from  the Normal Distribution.  Math. Comput., 27,124
> (Oct. 1973), 927 - 937.
>
>                                Binomial
>
> This code was kindly sent me by Dr. Kachitvichyanukul.
>
> Kachitvichyanukul,  V. and Schmeiser, B.   W.  Binomial Random Variate
> Generation.  Communications of the ACM, 31, 2 (February, 1988) 216.
>
>
>                                Poisson
>
> This code was obtained from netlib.
>
> Ahrens,  J.H. and Dieter, U.   Computer Generation of Poisson Deviates
> From Modified  Normal Distributions.  ACM Trans.  Math. Software, 8, 2
> (June 1982),163-179
>
>                                  Beta
>
> This code was written by us following the recipe in the following.
>
> R. C.  H.   Cheng Generating  Beta Variables  with  Nonintegral  Shape
> Parameters. Communications of  the ACM,  21:317-322 (1978) (Algorithms
> BB and BC)
>
>                                Linpack
>
> Routines SPOFA and SDOT are used to perform the Cholesky decomposition
> of  the covariance  matrix  in  SETGMN  (used  for  the  generation of
> multivariate normal deviates).
>
> Dongarra, J.  J., Moler,   C.  B., Bunch, J.   R. and  Stewart, G.  W.
> Linpack User's Guide.  SIAM Press, Philadelphia.  (1979)
> </quote>
>
> Linpack isn't an issue, however we use the exponential, normal, gamma,
> poisson routines as well as the base generators. So the problematic
> references are
>
> L'Ecuyer, P. and  Cote, S. "Implementing  a Random Number Package with
> Splitting  Facilities."  ACM  Transactions   on Mathematical Software,
> 17:98-111 (1991)
>
> Ahrens,  J.H. and  Dieter, U.   Computer Methods for Sampling From the
> Exponential and Normal  Distributions.  Comm. ACM,  15,10 (Oct. 1972),
> 873 - 882.
>
> Ahrens, J.H. and Dieter, U.  Generating Gamma  Variates by  a Modified
> Rejection Technique.  Comm. ACM, 25,1 (Jan. 1982), 47 - 54.
> Algorithm GD
>
> Ahrens, J.H. and Dieter, U.  Computer Methods for Sampling from Gamma,
> Beta,  Poisson  and Binomial   Distributions.    Computing, 12 (1974),
> 223-246.  Adaptation of algorithm GS.
>
> Ahrens, J.H.  and  Dieter, U.    Extensions of   Forsythe's Method for
> Random Sampling  from  the Normal Distribution.  Math. Comput., 27,124
> (Oct. 1973), 927 - 937.
>
> Ahrens,  J.H. and Dieter, U.   Computer Generation of Poisson Deviates
> From Modified  Normal Distributions.  ACM Trans.  Math. Software, 8, 2
> (June 1982),163-179
>
> So yes there is a case that randlib is not GPL compatible. The current
> ACM license is dated June 1998, and all of these references are prior to
> that. I checked the ACM website and unfortunately they only have the
> articles themselves and not  the legal material for the journals
> online.. So someone who had a paper copy of the ACM transactions from
> 1991 would have to check the licensing terms at that date... If there is
> nothing basic copyright applies and its not GPL compatible either..
>
> Ok, I think I've convinced myself that randlib has to go... Damn..
>
> D.
>
> > Dne středa 11 červenec 2007 13:58 jste napsal(a):
> >> Petr Gajdos wrote:
> >>> Hello,
> >>> I have tryed to remove randlib from octave 2.9.12. Can please someone
> >>> look at patch attached, if it's ok?
> >>>
> >>> Have a nice day
> >>> Petr
> >>
> >> Petr,
> >>
> >> Does SUSE require this to distribute Octave?
> >>
> >>> Dne středa 13 červen 2007 00:20 jste napsal(a):
> >>>> On 12-Jun-2007, David Bateman wrote:
> >>>> | which makes the whole question moot. If the authors, as owners of
> >>>> | the copyright on the code, place the code in the public domain, I
> >>>> | don't see how an ACM restriction can apply. The only question I see
> >>>> | is in the statement "that we have written". If there is any code in
> >>>> | randlib that was not written by the authors, then it would default
> >>>> | to the ACM license as the only one under which you can distribute..
> >>>> | I don't believe this is the case, so I think randlib is in the clear
> >>>> | for incorporation in GPLed software..
> >>
> >> Basically as I stated above I believe the code is not constrained by the
> >> ACM license as the code is explicitly placed in the public domain by the
> >> authors. So I believe the code is GPL compatible. However if SUSE
> >> lawyers think otherwise, then that is something else and the patch you
> >> supplied might be a way out.
> >>
> >> However, the state/seed means of switching between the generators is
> >> compatible with what matlab does and it would be a shame to loose this
> >> immediately, as it will allow existing Octave code that explicitly sets
> >> the key to continue to have the same behavior. Yes in the long term the
> >> randlib generators should go, but if SUSE can live with randlib in
> >> Octave perhaps it would be better to keep the old generators around till
> >> say the stable release after the 3.0 series (3.2?).
> >>
> >> Regards
> >> David