Ugh. If they had stopped at Yes, we'd be fine, but this additional information makes it seem like they do not permit modification of the dataset at all, outside of compression, CRLF, or character encoding.

Can you ask them this, so that we don't have ambiguity here?

  Do you grant permission to modify the datasets within the GAP transitive group library (as permitted by the Artistic 2.0 License)? We do not 
  have any immediate need to do this, but a library without the permission to modify is not considered a Free Software component. You can 
  require that modified versions do not refer to themselves by the name given to the unmodified original work, this would not make the library 
  non-Free Software.

If they need to talk to me, I'm happy to engage.

~tom

On Thu, Jan 24, 2019 at 12:31 PM Jerry James <loganjerry@gmail.com> wrote:
On Thu, Jan 24, 2019 at 8:59 AM Jerry James <loganjerry@gmail.com> wrote:
> I have sent a query upstream.  I will report back when I get a reply.

I used your wording, Tom, to ask if this was the intended meaning:
> "If software claims to use or include the GAP transitive groups
> library, you cannot modify the datasets. If you modify the datasets,
> you can no longer claim that software to be using or including the GAP
> transitive groups library.”

Upstream replied:

Yes. You may compress (if lossless) but you may not devise a different
storage format, renumber points, rearrange groups, rename files,
reformat the lines, etc. (I do not care about changing CRLF or
character encoding.)

I hope this does not cause problems for packagers, as (I think) after
all you take the existing files.


I am taking the "Yes" to mean that we are good to go.  Regards,
--
Jerry James
http://www.jamezone.org/