[AstroPy] astropy in Debian, Scientific Linux?

[Tim Jenness]

On Sun, Apr 7, 2013 at 5:22 PM, Tom Aldcroft
<aldcroft at head.cfa.harvard.edu>wrote:

>
> I wonder if it might be worth trying again with SOFA.  Things are a
> little different now since at this point there are real users that are
> unable to use our (and their) software because of their license.  This
> is very frustrating.
>
> I wonder if we could organize a petition in support of modifying the
> SOFA license to something more consistent with typical community
> standards.  I mean the IAU is supposed to be representing and
> benefiting astronomers, no?
>
>
The irony is that the SOFA library was written precisely because the IAU
felt that there should be a solid astrometry library available to the
community. I can't speak for them but I get the impression that they feel
they are trying hard for this to be usable by everyone and don't understand
why everyone who wants to use it is upset about the license. From what I
recall the sticking points are entirely around forking and damaging the IAU
reputation by local patching although I think that much of what they want
can be done by copyright enforcement rather than licensing.

Concrete examples of how people are actively deciding not to use the code
because of the license might help.

-- 
Tim Jenness
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