This is the Debian GNU/Linux prepackaged version of the GNU Scientific Library (GSL). GNU GSL is being written by Mark Galassi (rosalia@cygnus.com) and James Theiler (jt@nis.lanl.gov) with contributions from Jim Davies (jimmyd@nis.lanl.gov), Brian Gough (bjg@network-theory.co.uk), Reid Priedhorsky (rp@lanl.gov), Gerard Jungman (jungman@lanl.gov) and Mike Booth . This package was first initially maintained by Michael Booth, while James Troup and Roman Hodek made non-maintainer uploads. The current maintainer is Dirk Eddelbuettel . The original sources can be obtained at http://sourceware.cygnus.com/gsl and at ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/ As of Feb 2004, a current location can be accessed via http://sources.redhat.com/gsl Copyright (C) 1998-2008 Brian Gough Portions Copyright (C) 1998-2008 Mark Galassi, Jim Davies, James Theiler, Reid Priedhorsky, Gerald Jungman, Michael Booth, Fabrice Rossi, Simone Piccardi, Carlo Perassi, Ho-Jin Dan, Szymon Jaroszewicz, Nicolas Darnis, Tuomo Keskitalo, Ivo Alxneit, Jason H. Stover, Patrick Alken (see AUTHORS) License: GPL The GNU GSL documentation carries the following notice: The subroutines and source code in the GNU Scientific Library package are ``free''; this means that everyone is free to use them and free to redistribute them on a free basis. The GNU Scientific Library-related programs are not in the public domain; they are copyrighted and there are restrictions on their distribution, but these restrictions are designed to permit everything that a good cooperating citizen would want to do. What is not allowed is to try to prevent others from further sharing any version of these programs that they might get from you. Specifically, we want to make sure that you have the right to give away copies of the programs that relate to GNU Scientific Library, that you receive source code or else can get it if you want it, that you can change these programs or use pieces of them in new free programs, and that you know you can do these things. To make sure that everyone has such rights, we have to forbid you to deprive anyone else of these rights. For example, if you distribute copies of the GNU Scientific Library-related code, you t give the recipients all the rights that you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you must tell them their rights. Also, for our own protection, we must make certain that everyone finds out that there is no warranty for the programs that relate to GNU Scientific Library. If these programs are modified by eone else and passed on, we want their recipients to know that what they have is not what we distributed, so that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on our reputation. The precise conditions of the licenses for the programs currently being distributed that relate to GNU Scientific Library are nd in the General Public Licenses that accompany them. On Debian GNU/Linux systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public License (version 3) can be found in `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-3'. GSL versions prior to 1.10 were released under the GPL version 2. The reference manual (in doc/ in the sources) is released under the GNU Free Documentation License. As it happens, that version of 'free' (in the eyes of the FSF) makes it 'not-free' (in the eyes of Debian). Which is why this package has to be non-free.