[Pkg-scicomp-devel] Distribution problem with the Sundials documentation

[Rafael Laboissiere]

Dear Sundial authors,

We have been distributing Sundials in Debian since version 2.2.0 [1].
The Debian GNU/Linux distribution has a high standards quality and we pay
particular attention to the freeness of the software we distributed (cf the
Debian Free Software Guidelines, DFSG [2]).

We recently noticed that part of the package that we distribute is not
compliant with the DFSG.  It regards the documentation in the PDF format
(in doc.*/*.pdf).  First, it is not clear which are the licensing
conditions of those files.  Second, the source files of the PDF files are
not avaialble. 

The simplest solution for us, in order to make the package DFSG-compliant
is to strip out the PDF files.  That would be a pity for our users,
because the PDF documentation is a valuable addition to the package.
Another solution would be that you state clear which are the licensing
conditions of the documentation (and, obviously, it corresponds to a free
license) and that you make the source files available.  

Would you be willing to do it?

1: http://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=sundials
2: http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines

Thanks for your attention.

Cheers,

-- 
Rafael Laboissiere, Debian developer