[Fedora-legal-list] GNU Space chart and CDS catalogues

[Tom "spot" Callaway]

On Mon, 2008-03-10 at 12:03 +0100, Marek Mahut wrote:
> Hello legal team,
> 
> I would like to package GNU spacechart application [1], but I'm not sure 
> if we can ship their data files. Gnu Space Chart is a 3D star-mapping 
> program that uses data (not directly the catalogue [2], only set of data 
> from there) with this copyright notice:
> 
> 
> 
>     ##################################################################
>         Catalogues available at CDS contain scientific data distributed
>     for free, for a scientific usage. Only the expenses related to
>     copying and mailing are charged if relevant.
>         Companies including such data in their commercial products cannot
>     charge their clients for the data. Furthermore, users must be informed
>     of the origin of the data: this means an explicit reference to the 
>   service
>     provided by the CDS and also to the original author(s) of each 
> catalogue.
>     ##################################################################
> 
> 
> 
> Now, I'm not sure if we can ship it with Fedora, because even if someone 
> sell Fedora for money, they sell the program and not data directly. 
> However I don't know how the law looks on this problem.

I suspect that what you want to do is permitted by the terms of that
poorly worded notice, however, it would be a very good idea to confirm
that with the copyright holders. Be explicit in what you want to do, as
well as the permitted commercial use scenario where the data catalogues
are included as part of the larger Fedora offering.

~spot