Re: Access to the TFluka code

Hi Federico,

I understand your embarrassment. This is totally unacceptable and this should be made very clear to Alfredo.
Fluka has been developed with 99.9% of the money coming from CERN, so he should stop this stupid game
with licensing. I hope that, once more, CERN will not leave this opportunity to clarify the situation.
In the opposite assumption, we will have no choice but to remove the fluka_vmc as one of the possible choices from our VMC distribution.

Rene

Carminati Federico wrote:
> Dear All,
> as you know the Virtual MonteCarlo package of Root allows one to
> run simulations with different transport engines. At the moment the
> package has been interfaced with GEANT3, GEANT4 and FLUKA. While the
> licenses that accompany the first two are standard Open Source
> licenses that allow the access to the code and its usage with the VMC,
> the FLUKA license is in many ways more restrictive. In particular, the
> usage of the FLUKA programme with interfaces such as the VMC is
> explicitly forbidden. As you know the fluka_vmc code has been
> developed and validated under the direction of A.Morsch with the help
> and guidance of the FLUKA team, which we gratefully acknowledge. As a
> consequence of this, the FLUKA Team has accepted the concept of
> considering the granting upon request of special exceptions to the
> FLUKA license to single users or to experiments interested in the use
> of fluka_vmc. Therefore to be able to use fluka_vmc one has to request
> this special exception from the FLUKA team directly. All this is
> clearly explained in the README that accompanies the TFluka
> package. To date the CBM_at_FAIR-GSI, PANDA_at_FAIR-GSI, ALICE_at_LHC and
> 4thConcept_at_ILC experiments have requested and obtained this exception.
> The open source distribution policy applied till now to all of the
> ALICE code, and therefore also to the fluka_vmc interface
> (https://alisoft.cern.ch/fluka_vmc). However, this opened a loophole
> in the procedure. Any individual could have downloaded the fluka_vmc
> interface freely, obtained a legal FLUKA license, and then used the
> VMC with FLUKA without obtaining the special exception to the standard
> FLUKA license from the FLUKA team, either maliciously or because the
> README that accompanies the package went unnoticed. Yesterday the
> FLUKA Team has formally requested that we take immediate steps to
> close this loophole. Note that what is at issue here is not our right
> to distribute the fluka_vmc code, but rather our obligation to exert
> our best efforts to avoid illegal use of the FLUKA programme.
> As a consequence of this request, we have closed access to the
> fluka_vmc repository. Members of the aforementioned experiments can
> obtain access to it upon simple request (to be addressed
> to peter.hristov_at_cern.ch <mailto:peter.hristov_at_cern.ch>), as they
> already have a valid permission to use the fluka_vmc code with FLUKA
> for work related to their experiment. Individuals who are not members
> of these experiments or other experiments should ask the FLUKA team
> permission to use the fluka_vmc before being granted access to the
> code. I must sincerely apologise to all of you for the short notice
> and for the inconvenience that this may cause you, but the FLUKA team
> asked us to take action immediately and in the interest of maintaining
> our excellent relations with them, we decided to act quickly.
> Thanks a lot for your understanding and best regards,
>
> Federico Carminati
> CERN-PH
> 1211 Geneva 23
> Switzerland
> Tel: +41 22 76 74959
> Fax: +41 22 76 68505
> Mobile: +41 76 487 4843
>
>
>
Received on Sat Nov 07 2009 - 11:55:14 CET