[Coin-discuss] license issues

[John Pye]

Hi all,

I've just come across COIN and the IPOPT solver, and was thinking about
looking at it as a possible open source alternative to the CONOPT solver
that we currently rely on for some of the functionality in the ASCEND
modelling environment (another CMU project).

I was wondering why IPOPT has chosen the Common Public License.
According to the GNU website, this license is not compatible with the
GPL, which means that although IPOPT is open source, we can't legally
distribute it with our software. Perversely, it seems that it is easier
to use IPOPT in commercial projects than in free projects!

Is there a good reason why the CPL is applied to IPOPT -- perhaps
another license could be used instead, such as the GPL or LGPL license?

I note that this discussion also appears to have taken place on the
CppAd list, and the Boost license was suggested there as an alternative.

Cheers
JP