[Pkg-octave-devel] BSD-licensed upstream tarball but needs form filled

[Andrey Romanenko]

Hello,

On Tuesday 29 November 2005 16:52, Rafael Laboissiere wrote:
> We are seeking advice on how to proceed about an upstream tarball
> distribution issue.  The Debian Octave Group is planning to package the
> SUNDIALS library (http://www.llnl.gov/CASC/sundials/main.html) for
> integration into Octave.  This package is released under a BSD License
> (http://www.llnl.gov/CASC/sundials/download/license.html).  I think it is
> DFSG-compliant.
>
> The problem is that prior to downloading the tarball (at
> http://www.llnl.gov/CASC/sundials/download/download.html), the user is
> asked to fill a form in a web page.  Our question is: does this
> restriction decrease somehow the freeness of the package?  If yes, how
> should we proceed in approaching the upstream authors about this problem?

I have contacted Radu Serban, one of the co-authors of SUNDIALS and he
was clear to state that this web form is just for the authors to have an idea 
on SUNDIALS popularity, and that the BSD license obviously allows 
redistribution/repackaging. So, I believe that there is no legal problem that 
would preclude  a SUNDIALS  Debian package.

Andrey Romanenko