Packaging Starplot and related data files

[Debarshi 'Rishi' Ray]

I am packaging Starplot (http://starplot.org/) for Fedora and would
like to discuss some license related issues.

The main Starplot program that gets built from
http://starplot.org/downloads/starplot-0.95.4.tar.gz is licensed under
GPLv2+. However, the Starplot data files distributed as
datahttp://starplot.org/data/gliese3-0.95.tar.gz and
http://starplot.org/data/yale5-0.95.tar.gz seem to be under a
"Redistributable, no modification permitted" license.

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This is what the COPYING says:

                     NOTE ON STAR DATA FILES

 Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
 of this copyright note, but changing it is not allowed.

The Makefile and .spec file of this data set are licensed under the GNU GPL,
of which you should have received a copy with the StarPlot documentation.
The GPL also applies to the text documentation (README, INSTALL) for this data
set, except where it would conflict with the licensing requirements described
below.  The GPL does ***NOT*** apply to the star data files enclosed or
generated.  The data files in the orig-data directory originate from the
Astronomical Data Center (http://adc.gsfc.nasa.gov) at NASA Goddard Space
Flight Center, and are copyrighted by their respective authors.  Upon asking
the ADC about the permissibility of their redistribution, I was told the
following:

        Yes, you are free to distribute the files with your program.
        Although, we do ask that you acknowledge, your source (the ADC)
        and the original authors.

        See: http://adc.gsfc.nasa.gov/adc/acknowledge_adc.html
        for more information.

My conclusions are that (1) you are free to redistribute the ADC data files.
However, (2) you must not delete any documentation giving credit for the data
files, for example in the README; and (3) the data files must NOT be altered in
any way (without permission of the original authors).  Therefore (4) it is NOT
permissible to redistribute the *.stars files which the StarPlot conversion
program creates from the ADC data files.  I have confirmed these conclusions
with the ADC.

The above text is Copyright (C) 2000  Kevin B. McCarty.

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The following copyright notice is found in the README:

COPYRIGHT NOTE

It is safe to redistribute the files in the orig-data directory,
which, as noted above, are freely available on the Astronomical Data Center
web site.  However, since these are copyrighted data, you may NOT redistribute
modified versions of them.  This is why I have the StarPlot-format data files,
*.stars, generated at install time instead of being available for download.
I would advise that you NOT redistribute these *.stars data files.  See the
file COPYING for more information.

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Can these data files be packaged as starplot-data for Fedora? Please advise.

Thanks,
Debarshi
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