[FLASH-USERS] Question about permissions for distributing user-made setups

[John Zuhone]

Hi Don,

Good to hear from you and thanks for this reply—it’s clarifying. I assumed that clause 4 might apply here, but wasn’t sure. 

John

> On Jul 21, 2021, at 9:40 AM, Don Q. Lamb <lamb at astro.uchicago.edu> wrote:
> 
> Dear John,
> 
> Thank you for your question.  Any modifications in the FLASH code, even if it's a simulation setup that modifies files like Simulation_initBlock, Simulation_data, etc. fall under Section 4 of the license agreement (see below) and cannot be redistributed anonymously on github.
> 
> Licensed users can, of course, collaborate and share such files in the context of academic collaborations. If the users would like for their setup to be distributed to the broader FLASH userbase, we can include it in future releases in the Simulation directory, with appropriate attributions to the authors.
> 
> 4. Modifications and Acknowledgments. Users may make modifications to
> the FLASH Code, and they are encouraged to send such modifications to
> the Center. Users are not free to distribute the FLASH Code to others,
> as noted in Section 3 above. As resources permit, we will incorporate
> such modifications in subsequent releases of the FLASH Code, and we
> will acknowledge these external contributions. Note that modifications
> that do not make it into an officially-released version of the FLASH
> Code will not be supported by us.
> 
> With warm regards, Don
> 
> -- 
> ************************************************************************
> *  Don Q. Lamb (he/him)                                                *
> *  Robert A. Millikan Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus         *
> *  Associate Director, Flash Center for Computational Science          *
> *  Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics                            *
> *    and the Enrico Fermi Institute                                    *
> *  Harris School of Public Policy                                      *
> *  University of Chicago                                               *
> *  5640 South Ellis Avenue                    (773) 350-3838 (Cell)    *
> *  Chicago, IL 60637                          lamb at astro.uchicago.edu <mailto:lamb at astro.uchicago.edu>  *
> ************************************************************************
> 
> 
> On 7/20/21 8:17 PM, John ZuHone wrote:
>> Hi folks,
>> 
>> This is a question for anyone who has knowledge about how FLASH licensing affects distribution of code written by end-users, in particular simulation setups. 
>> 
>> Suppose I write a setup which goes in SimulationMain, but it is not contributed upstream back to the FLASH main repository itself for a release. Am I allowed to distribute it on (say) github? In theory anyone could download it from there. This gets tricky because even though most of the code is written by me, some of it is lightly edited routines from elsewhere in the code (say a modified Grid_markRefineDerefine.F90). 
>> 
>> I had a look at the license and it doesn’t seem to cover this question, so any help from anyone “in the know” here would be useful.
>> 
>> Best,
>> 
>> John ZuHone

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