Licensing question

[duranteo...@gmail.com]

Hello,

While visiting SOAP website I noticed the following mention for SOAPaligner-v2.21:

 

“NOTE: Due to the copyright about some parts of source code, in current version, we cannot open the SOAPaligner/soap2’s source code. If you want to use SOAPaligner/soap2 in other platforms, please feel free to contact us and you need to show your CPU architecture and OS kernel version. And because the data structure is incompatible with 32bit systems, we will NOT provide relevant version for you.”

Considering that SOAPaligner is under GPL, and that it contains copyright parts, I wonder to whom I could ask to provide me some details such as:

-          - Who is(are) the author’(s) of the parts subject to copyright ?

-          - Why is it impossible to provide the source code of said copyrighted parts while the software is under GPL?

-          - How are said copyright parts linked to the code ? Is it possible to detach the copyright parts ?

-          - Were these copyright parts already present in the previous versions of the software? (v2.20 for instance)?

I tried to use the adress mail provided on the website (so...@genomics.org.cn), but I had no answer so far.

Regards,
Olivier Durante