[GSLL-devel] Violation of the GFDL in GSLL

Hi,

Thanks for writing GSLL, it is a very useful piece of software for scientists like me.

Since I am also a Debian Developer, I would like to package GSLL into Debian. However a major issue needs to be solved before this can happen.

The problem is that documentation strings in GSLL are copied (and possibly modified) from the GSL reference manual, which is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). But GSLL is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Therefore, the portions of the GSL reference manual incorporated in the documentation strings have been de facto relicensed under the GPL, which is a violation of the GFDL (the two licenses being incompatible).

As such, this make GSLL unredistributable from a legal point of view.

I see only two possible solutions to this problem:

1. Ask the permission from the copyright holders of the GSL manual (i.e. the GSL Team) to incorporate parts of the GSL manual into the GSLL under the GPL. If such a permission has already been given, it should be mentioned somewhere in the GSLL source tree (I could not find it anywhere).

2. Strip from GSLL all documentation strings that incorporate material from the GSL manual.

Of course, 1 would be preferable over 2.

Thanks in advance for your feedback. I hope this issue can be solved, so that GSLL makes its way into Debian.

Regards,