Clarification of license text policy for documentation

[Andrew McIntyre <mc...@gmail.com>]

The source file header and copyright policy document recently posted
at http://www.apache.org/legal/src-headers.html file contains this
language as regards the policy for documentation:

"With few exceptions, all human-readable Apache-developed files that
are included within a distribution must include the header text.
Documentation, including web site documentation distributed with the
release, may include the header text within some form of metadata
(such as HTML comments) or as a header or footer appearing in the
visible documentation."

While this obviously holds for the source files for documentation,
there was recently a question about this policy as it applies to
generated documentation, i.e. the "visible documentation". While
modifying the Derby javadoc to follow the policy quoted above, Dan
Debrunner brought up an issue regarding the language of the source
file header text when applied to javadoc, see
http://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/DERBY-1752#action_12431713

While I agree with him that for the collected work published by Apache
a notice similar to what goes into the NOTICE file seems more
appropriate, this is not the guidance given in the src-headers
document. The src-headers document explicitly states that projects
should use the header text for source files in the visible
documentation, and not the notice text.

Could someone please clarify whether or not the source file header
text or the notice text is appropriate for visible documentation that
is compiled as the collective work of an Apache project? Does the "may
include" in the text quoted above mean that the source file header
text or the notice text is sufficient if it appears on the front page
of the javadoc or other generated documentation, and that it is not
necessary to insert some kind of notice into each page of generated
documentation? And if so, which is more appropriate, the source file
header text or the notice text?

Thank you,
andrew

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Re: Re: Clarification of license text policy for documentation

[Andrew McIntyre <mc...@gmail.com>]

Thanks, Hen, for answering the question about whether or not the text
should appear in all pages of generated documentation or if the front
page is sufficient.

Any opinions on this question?

On 9/21/06, Andrew McIntyre <mc...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Could someone please clarify whether or not the source file header
> text or the notice text is appropriate for visible documentation that
> is compiled as the collective work of an Apache project?

As mentioned in the original mail, it would seem that the copyright
notice that goes into NOTICE is more appropriate to display on the
front page of generated documentation that is a collective work of the
ASF, and not the license header text. However, this is not what the
policy at http://www.apache.org/legal/src-headers.html specifies for
documentation.

Thanks,
andrew

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Re: Clarification of license text policy for documentation

[Henri Yandell <ba...@apache.org>]

On 9/21/06, Andrew McIntyre <mc...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Could someone please clarify whether or not the source file header
> text or the notice text is appropriate for visible documentation that
> is compiled as the collective work of an Apache project? Does the "may
> include" in the text quoted above mean that the source file header
> text or the notice text is sufficient if it appears on the front page
> of the javadoc or other generated documentation, and that it is not
> necessary to insert some kind of notice into each page of generated
> documentation? And if so, which is more appropriate, the source file
> header text or the notice text?

So there are a couple of FAQ entries that cover the basics of this:

* Does this policy apply to documentation files included in a release?
   -> Yes.
* Does this policy also apply to content displayed on our web sites?
   -> No. <snip explanation>

If it's a question of generated documentation as a part of site
authoring; ie) xdoc/anakia, xslt, then the 'Yes' for distribution
above applies.

If it's a question of generated documentation from tools, then I think
we have to go with it being a 'No', even if it is distributed. Trying
to figure out how to put it in the output of every tool is going to be
insane.

Hen

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