On Thu, Nov 2, 2017, at 00:26, Nathaniel Smith wrote:

The FSF is definitely guilty of oversimplifying this, but it's probably best to think of their position as a simple bright-line rule of thumb, like... if you follow this rule you're definitely safe, and if you don't follow this rule... well, it's complicated and ultimately it might depend on what the jury had for lunch that day, so good luck. Or at least you should ask an actual lawyer :-)

Should we not also ask: if we got sued, would an argument along the lines of "yes, I know you've explicitly stated publicly that you meant *this* with your license, but we prefer interpreting it like *that*" fly? I have no idea how courts interpret these things, but if a reasonable expectation was set, I can't see how ignoring it would benefit us.

Until there's absolute clarity, or a confirmation from the authors or the FSF that importing FFTW is OK, I wouldn't go there.

Stéfan