Scientific Software Open Source Academic for Free License
SCIENTIFIC SOFTWARE OPEN SOURCE ACADEMIC FOR FREE LICENSE
version 1.6
Copyright (C) 2007, Valerio Olevano

Preamble

With respect to common and largely spread open source and free-like licenses, the Scientific Software Open Source Academic Free License is intended in response to specific characteristics owned by the scientific software developed in academic and public research institutions, for its use both in the basic research scientific world and in the applied research technological industrial commercial world. If it is today well established the role and the importance assumed by the scientific software in basic research, there is on the other hand an ever growing interest by the industrial world to the scientific software for the benefits it can withdraw. And this is an ascertainment which is more and more present to national and communitary governments who well understand all the outcomes this can have on the industrial development of one country, and hence invite the scientific world to consider such an issue.

But these two worlds present non-compatible needs and ways of functioning. For example, on one hand each new result of research is published immediately, made freely available to the largest community, in all details and possibly for free. On the other hand, a new result is not published immediately, when published is protected by patents and the exploitation ruled by commercial agreements. The task to reconciliate these two points of view is difficult.

The Scientific Software License tries to solve this dilemma by imposing a double regime to scientific software: one regime for the academic world, regulated by this License; the other regime, the commercial one, not regulated by this License and to be regulated by another license or other licenses. This avoids to neglect the needs of the commercial world and to submit, sacrifice them to the needs of the academic world.

The Scientific Software License is intended to guarantee full freedom to use, share, copy, modify and redistribute scientific software in the academic world. To this respect, this License guarantees all the freedoms guaranteed by common open source free-like licenses, and in some cases even beyond. On the other hand, it reserves all the rights with respect to the commercial world and indicates in different commercial licensing the rules to be applied to this world. It makes the two worlds non-communicating for what concerns the way of functioning, thus protecting the specific needs of both, but at the same time allowing the outcomes of the academic world to be used into the commercial world and according its rules.

It is important to notice that, with respect to common open source free-like licenses, the Scientific Software License explicitly establishes the ROYALTY-FREE, NO COST, GRATUITY of the software submitted to this license into the ACADEMIC, NON-COMMERCIAL world. The ambiguity contained inside the English term "free" is once and for all ruled out. But on the other hand, this License reserves all the rights with respect to the commercial world. Thus a software submitted to this License is unambiguously free and gratis in the academic world, while the fare and the rights to be granted are tunable by a separate negotiation, from case to case, for the commercial world. Situations can be configured where exclusive right of use and redistribution of the code are granted to an unique commercial institution; or exclusiveness for the use in a certain commercial, merceological sector or non exclusiveness and opening to all the commercial world. Of course the applied fees are consequent to the granted rights.

In practice, commercial institutions are in general not interested in how the software they are using is distributed in the academic world, and whether the academic world receive for free what they are paying. They even consider that each easiness into this field would allow a faster development of science and as a consequence also codes which is globally going to benefit them as a last instance. What they are interested to is, when investing on a research line or on a code, that concurrent commercial companies are not free to recover the fruit of their investment. For this they ask Licenses guaranteeing them exclusiveness, such as their investment is protected and is not going to benefit the concurrency. And this is not at all guaranteed by common open source free-like licenses.

The fact that the Scientific Software License keeps into account the needs of the Industrial world has the double purpose not only to make the industrial world benefit of the outcomes of the academic world. But benefits can go also in the reverse direction: the financial revenues coming from the selling of scientific software under commercial licenses can be used to finance the development of the scientific software. In a first time for the aspects that interest more directly the applied research itself, to follow their requests, which however can also reveal interesting for basic research. In a second, even to finance the basic research itself. 

It is important to notice that this revenue is going to finance, to pay the work, the job of the basic research itself. Not the services to be provided beyond the basic research itself, and which do not constitute the basic research work, job itself. The License clearly identifies these services in the following list: physical act of transferring a copy of the software; offer of a warranty protection; assistance in the installation, compilation and use; training of the users. These are services that cannot be configured as basic research activity and cannot be asked to institutions and subject working into institutions whose social purposes are the basic research itself. The License does not exclude that these services can be further provided by other parties, subjects, interface companies between basic research institutions and the industry, whose social purpose is not the basic research itself. Thus we believe that this License is further giving impulse to the development and the creation of other, new working activities, somehow in contact with basic research and benefiting too, like the industry, of the basic research byproducts.

With respect to common open source free-like licenses, the Scientific Software License for the first time addresses also other issues which are peculiar to the scientific world. And these are, for example, the individuation of the figure and the rights of the Contributor as a party providing contributions to the code by modifying it and giving it back to the central for further redistribution. This is a figure which is not at all considered in other licenses. As a consequence, his rights are not at all taken into account. Finally it establishes the right of authors and also contributors to have the software cited in case of publication of results obtained by the software. This is another important issue, because so far the acknowledgment of a code having been used to obtain results has been left to ethical and moral issues. One can omit to acknowledge a code licensed with a common open source free-like license and even acknowledge in place, for example, codes not having been used to achieve the results, even commercial codes, thus commercially advertising such codes. By this License it is imposed that the code used be adequately, corresponding to the extent it has been used to achieve the results, acknowledged.


TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THE LICENSE

This agreement between the owners, intended as the employers of the authors, and the authors of the DP software, as mentioned in the copyright notice and in the following referred to as OWNERS and AUTHORS, and the LICENSEE, regulates the use of the DP software, referred to as SOFTWARE and meaning the executables, the objects, the source code, the compilation and installation scripts and the associated documentation files constituting as a whole the DP package.

1. COST and FRAMEWORK
The SOFTWARE, including the source code, is delivered at NO COST for ACADEMIC or PUBLIC RESEARCH use or use for Non-Commercial and Non-Military purposes solely and leading to open publication of the results with neither withhold of information nor intentional delay in publication. The LICENSEE guarantees that the SOFTWARE or modified versions of SOFTWARE or derivative work based on SOFTWARE is not used for any commercial or profit or military purpose. Other licenses and agreements between the OWNERS, the AUTHORS and the LICENSEE are necessary to regulate commercial or profit use of SOFTWARE or modified versions of SOFTWARE or derivative work based on SOFTWARE or work containing the SOFTWARE or a portion of it.

2. USE
The LICENSEE is provided with a non-exclusive, royalty-free right to use any part of the SOFTWARE, and to display, publish or otherwise use results of the SOFTWARE in any form.

3. COPY
The LICENSEE may copy the SOFTWARE in any medium and as many times as he wishes, provided that he keeps intact all the copyright notices, disclaimers of warranty, notices to this License and this License file which has to be considered as integral part of the SOFTWARE.

4. MODIFICATION
The LICENSEE may study and modify the SOFTWARE provided that the modified SOFTWARE is licensed under the same license and conditions established by the present License, and that the modified files carry notices stating the name of the contributor, the reason and the date of any change. These requirements apply to the modified SOFTWARE as a whole. If identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the SOFTWARE, and can be reasonably considered as independent and separate works in themselves, then this License does not apply to those sections.

5. CONTRIBUTIONS
The LICENSEE has the faculty, if he wishes, to make available any modified version and derivative work to the AUTHORS and, for further following distribution, to other licensees. The AUTHORS reserve the exclusive right to accept or refuse the contribution and evaluate its weight with respect to the rest. In case of acceptance by the AUTHORS of a contribution, the LICENSEE acquires the status of CONTRIBUTOR. Important accepted contributions with a weight evaluated by the AUTHORS beyond 5% with respect to the rest, give the right to full authorship for the corresponding share of participation to decisions. The AUTHORS agree to a reciprocal acknowledgment and redistribution policy of the CONTRIBUTOR's contribution in a manner similar to as stated in the following paragraph.

6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
In case of publication in reviews or any other medium, or communication into conferences of results obtained with the SOFTWARE or modified versions of SOFTWARE or derivative work based on SOFTWARE, the LICENSEE agrees to refer adequately and corresponding to the extent the SOFTWARE has been used to produce the result, to the AUTHORS and to the eventual CONTRIBUTORS having provided a new effectively used functionality, by citing key publications, or in suborder by citing the SOFTWARE web site, or in suborder by referring to a private communication from the AUTHORS and eventual CONTRIBUTORS.

7. FORBIDDEN REDISTRIBUTION IN COMMERCIAL WORLD
The LICENSEE is not allowed to distribute the SOFTWARE, modified version of the SOFTWARE or derivative works to commercial or profit institutions or any other third parties using the SOFTWARE for commercial or profit purposes. 

8. FREE REDISTRIBUTION IN ACACEMIC WORLD
The LICENSEE is allowed to redistribute the SOFTWARE or modified versions of the SOFTWARE to academic and public research institutions or other third parties working in academic or public research institutions and for non-commercial purposes. Redistribution of the SOFTWARE or modified versions of the SOFTWARE or derived work must retain the copyright notices in the top of the source files and of the produced output files. Redistribution of the SOFTWARE or modified versions of the SOFTWARE or derived work must be licensed under the terms of this License and must retain the present License file in the package provided with the distribution. The LICENSEE may not impose any further restrictions of the rights granted herein on the redistributed copies of the SOFTWARE, modified versions of the SOFTWARE and derived work. The LICENSEE is allowed, if he wishes, to charge fees for the physical act of transferring a copy, and/or for offering a warranty protection and/or assistance in the compilation, the installation and the use and/or training of the users.

9. LICENSE VALIDITY
The LICENSEE is not required to sign this License. However, if the LICENSEE does not accept this license agreement without any reservation, nothing else grants the LICENSEE's permission to use, copy, study, modify and redistribute the SOFTWARE, modified versions of the SOFTWARE or derivative works. By using, copying, studying, modifying or redistributing the SOFTWARE, the LICENSEE indicates his acceptance of the present License agreement and all its terms and conditions without any reservation. 

10. LICENSE VIOLATIONS
The LICENSEE may not use, copy, study, modify and redistribute the SOFTWARE except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise to use, copy, study, modify, sublicense or redistribute the SOFTWARE is void, and will automatically terminate the LICENSEE's rights under this License. Any violation of this agreement results in loss of the SOFTWARE license. Further juridical steps are reserved to the Copyright Holders.

11. JURISDICTION
This license agreement is not restricted in time and governed by French law. The place of jurisdiction is Paris, France.

12. NO WARRANTY
SINCE IT IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. THE LICENSEE ASSUMES THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY, THE PERFORMANCES AND THE PROVIDED RESULTS OF THE SOFTWARE. IN CASE THE SOFTWARE PROVES DEFECTIVE, THE LICENSEE ASSUMES ALL THE COSTS OF ALL NECESSARY REPAIRS OR CORRECTIONS. IN NO EVENTS SHALL THE AUTHORS, THE CONTRIBUTORS OR THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF, OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE OR ANY OTHER DEALINGS WITH THE SOFTWARE.