[Coin-discuss] license issues

[Hart, William E]

FYI, the discussion that JP refers to is available at:

  http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html

I can't say that I understand the gist of the incompatibility...

--Bill 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: coin-discuss-bounces at list.coin-or.org 
> [mailto:coin-discuss-bounces at list.coin-or.org] On Behalf Of John Pye
> Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 7:59 AM
> To: coin-discuss at list.coin-or.org
> Subject: [Coin-discuss] license issues
> 
> 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
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