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Re: default option set for math/octave depends on non-free software



  Please look at the package again. It is not about whether or not it
  requires a license tag. It is about whether the package is
  redistributable or not. I think it qualifies for the later and therefore
  binary packages can be distributed.

I read the license, and there is no "permission is granted to redistribute".
Specifically it says:

  Copyright (C) 2003-2005 Lowell H. Miles and Jack A. Venbrux.  
  Licensed to ICs Corp. for distribution by the University of Illinois' 
  National Center for Supercomputing Applications as a part of the 
  HDF data storage and retrieval file format and software library
  products package.  All rights reserved.  Do not modify or use for other
  purposes.

  [permission to use]

which is permission to UI NCSA to distribute, but not permission to
anyone else.  The code is copyrighted, so therefore it may not be
distributed.

I realize that we're used to seeing negative terms in license, but under
copyright law, if there's no explicit permission to redistribute,
there's no permission.  I suspect if you talked to the copyright
holders, they would be willing to grant permission to redistribute.  But
that's different from actually having granted permission.

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