[jira] [Commented] (LEGAL-178) Location of LICENSE/NOTICE files in binary release artifacts

["Rob Weir (JIRA)" <ji...@apache.org>]

    [ https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LEGAL-178?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=13785275#comment-13785275 ] 

Rob Weir commented on LEGAL-178:
--------------------------------

Note that all binaries are not the same.  There is a practical difference between a binary library and a binary GUI application.  With OpenOffice, which is a GUI, we put LICENSE and NOTICE in a subdirectory of our install directory, but then we have a tabbed dialog in the Help/About dialog box where we actually display these files for the user to read.  That is the UI standard for GUI's, where users expect to go for this kind of information.  Similarly, the META-INF directory is more typical for JARs.  That's where developers will look.

Aside from ASF policy, one important aspect for OpenOffice was to reduce the amount of work that a pre-installer would need to do to be compliant with ALv2.  We've received several requests from laptop vendors asking about requirements for pre-installing OpenOffice on laptops. We point them to the license, the section on redistribution, and say that if the install and don't modify any of the files then the requirements for including the LICENSE and NOTICE are automatically satisfied because the are included as part of the install.

> Location of LICENSE/NOTICE files in binary release artifacts
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
>                 Key: LEGAL-178
>                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LEGAL-178
>             Project: Legal Discuss
>          Issue Type: Question
>            Reporter: ant elder
>
> Over at the Incubator a question has come up over where the LICENSE and NOTICE files should be located in binary release artifacts. I can't find any precise or accurate documentation on this so could that be defined here?
> The web page http://apache.org/legal/src-headers.html#notice says:
>  "Every Apache distribution should include a NOTICE file in the top directory, along with the standard LICENSE file."
> However things like Java .jar artifacts don't do that and instead have them located in the /META-INF directory. Related to that, what about things like Windows .msi or .exe insaller packages which don't have a "top directory"? 
> I vaguely remember this question coming up before but i can't find anything in the archives now, FWIR the answer then was it was ok for the LICENSE/NOTICE to be located where ever was most appropriate and expected for the environment and binary artifact type.
> Any comments?



--
This message was sent by Atlassian JIRA
(v6.1#6144)

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: legal-discuss-unsubscribe@apache.org
For additional commands, e-mail: legal-discuss-help@apache.org