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Bug #46209 Problematic licence in rand.c (with solution)
Submitted: 2008-10-01 10:35 UTC Modified: 2008-10-01 11:04 UTC
From: thijs at debian dot org Assigned:
Status: Closed Package: *Math Functions
PHP Version: 5.2.6 OS: Any
Private report: No CVE-ID: None
View Developer Edit
 [2008-10-01 10:35 UTC] thijs at debian dot org 
Description:
------------
Hi,

The file ext/standard/rand.c in any recent version contains the following remark about the licencing of the Mersenne Twister code:

"       The original code included the following notice:

        When you use this, send an email to: matumoto@math.keio.ac.jp
    with an appropriate reference to your work.

        It would be nice to CC: rjwagner@writeme.com and Cokus@math.washington.edu
        when you write.
"

This requirement is problematic because everyone using the PHP code in some way has to send an email to him. This is for example a problem for Debian where Debian itself and any derivative distribution would need to send such a mail, plus every user who takes the source code and does something with it.

At Debian we contacted the copyright holder and he swiftly replied that the condition can be completely removed:
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?msg=52;bug=498621

So, could you please remove this condition from the code?


thanks,
Thijs Kinkhorst
Debian Developer

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 [2008-10-01 11:04 UTC] scottmac@php.net 
This bug has been fixed in CVS.

Snapshots of the sources are packaged every three hours; this change
will be in the next snapshot. You can grab the snapshot at
http://snaps.php.net/.
 
Thank you for the report, and for helping us make PHP better.

All sorted now in 5.2, 5.3 and trunk
 
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