[info-gnuastro] Suggestions on Gnuastro library license

[Mohammad Akhlaghi]

Dear alll,

As it currently stands, Gnuastro will be released with the GNU General 
Public License (GPL). But we are planning on changing the libraries into 
shared libraries and installing them along with the utilities (executables):

https://savannah.gnu.org/task/index.php?13765

Since Gnuastro is written in C, it can be used in all C-family languages 
(for example using C++, Python, Java, Perl or etc). So it can be used in 
a very large variaty of astronomical projects. We will also be working 
on wrappers for those languages (with people who use those languages)

https://savannah.gnu.org/task/index.php?13786

But some projects are licensed under BSD or MIT licenses, so they won't 
be able to use the Gnuastro libraries if we keep it under GNU GPL. So 
the issue is this: what is the best license to choose for the 
installable/shared libraries of Gnuastro? Should we keep them as GNU 
GPL, or should we maybe change the license for the libraries to the GNU 
Lesser General Public License (LGPL)? The issue is now open to 
discussion and since it is not yet released, we can make the choice with 
less pressure. So I have defined this task:

https://savannah.gnu.org/task/index.php?13816

There are lots of astronomical project pipelines and libraires out 
there, so I am asking for your help in conducting a survey of all the 
available project pipelines or libraries and their licenses so we can 
make a relatively complete list and use that as a reference to justify 
our final choice of license for the Gnuastro libraries. In particular it 
would be great if we can gather a list of all the major current and 
future instrument pipelines (for example the LSST, or Euclid, or SKA or 
others).

Please follow the instructions here to let us know and we will add your 
suggestions to that list (ofcourse your support will be gratefully 
acknowledged):

http://www.gnu.org/software/gnuastro/manual/html_node/Report-a-bug.html

Thank you very much,
Mohammad