[Fwd: licensing issues revisited]

[Leo Simons <le...@apache.org>]

Dear PMC,

I am sure you have noticed the recent discussions regarding licensing
issues within Avalon CVS. There's still some confusion among committers
about what is correct and what is not. I'd like you to take a look at
the messages on this subject on avalon-dev:

http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?t=102509747200005&r=1&w=2 (september)
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?t=102501253800001&r=1&w=2 (september)
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?t=103519834400001&r=1&w=2 (this week)

and follow up with a clear and decisive statement describing in some
detail what is acceptable and what is not, so that any doubts can be
taken away and we can properly clean up our mess. (note: I have tried
contacting legal@apache.org but that message bounced).


thanks in advance and best regards,


Leo Simons



Below are some excerpts:

On Mon, 2002-10-21 at 21:30, Paul Hammant wrote:
<snip/>
> Stephen McConnell wrote:
> > Actually I was under the impression that this was discussed and
agreed 
> > ages ago - Leo's email was just a pointed reminder that there is 
> > housekeeping based on the feedback from Stafano from the PMC 
> > concerning their unilateral position.
> >
> > If you consider the license question as an open-issue, then yes, I
can 
> > see how you could draw a conclusion that updating license statements
> > in the framework was unilateral - however, I think that's wrong 
> > because this is a PMC position, not an Avalon position. 
> 
> For me it is only a ugliness factor.  The longer one is clearly more 
> ugly, and I'd /prefer/ to have the short ones.  For other it is more 
> important than that.  If we're all not in unison, could we perhaps
draw 
> in a someone who has met with the lawyers in question and advise us 
> direct.  It may seem redundant, but I am sure an apache old-timer
might 
> like to come here for a couple of days to answer questions....

related to an older thread re-started recently with:

-----Forwarded Message-----
From: Leo Simons <le...@apache.org>
To: Avalon Development <av...@jakarta.apache.org>
Cc: legal@apache.org
Subject: licensing issues revisited
Date: 21 Oct 2002 13:05:06 +0200

Dear all,

a while ago we had a discussion about the license header in source
files. It has been resolved and decided by the authorities that be that
we should put the full license in every source file (at least until v1.3
of the license see light of day IIUC).

We've been quite sloppy in doing this properly at avalon. Large parts of
our code still have the short header, other parts have the long header
but no copyright message (meaning the license is mostly void). We need
to give this priority as it strongly reduces the strength of the apache
legal position, and could potentially really be a big problem for the
ASF (if anyone ever sues over this, we will all have contributed to ASF
bankrupcy).

Just as a recap, _all_ source files in apache CVS need to include the
full license at the very top, and they must include a copyright notice
which _fully_ attributes the copyright to the apache software
foundation. The copyright notice _must_ be dated for it to be
unambiguous.

Dual copyright notices are _not_ allowed if the code is to live in
avalon CVS. A notice "based on an original contribution by..." or
however that goes is possible, but a considerable amount of legal papers
must be signed by all parties involved for that to happen I believe.

The attached file is a sample valid license. The date can either be in
the form of a year, or in the format of two years separated by a dash,
or in the form of a list of years separated by a comma and a space. The
current filtering setup in place at some points using ant and @year@ for
filling in the year is thus also unacceptable I believe.

Clause 4 of the license may be modified to include additional reserved
terms, as was done here from the normal v1.2 license by including the
terms "Jakarta" and "Avalon".

Also note the use of comment tags is allowed, ie enclosing the license
in <!-- --> for xml files or /* */ for source files.

I am not a lawyer and the above is not to be taken as legal advice. It
may not be accurate.

I am CCing this to legal@apache.org so that they may take appropriate
action if it is neccessary, or so they can correct things I might have
not outlined properly. (Legal people, if the above is correct and any
special action is not neccessary at this point, please ignore this
message :)

cheers,

Leo

contents of the attachment:
----
/*

 ============================================================================
                   The Apache Software License, Version 1.1
 ============================================================================

 Copyright (C) 1997-2002 The Apache Software Foundation. All rights reserved.

 Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modifica-
 tion, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

 1. Redistributions of  source code must  retain the above copyright  notice,
    this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice,
    this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation
    and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

 3. The end-user documentation included with the redistribution, if any, must
    include  the following  acknowledgment:  "This product includes  software
    developed  by the  Apache Software Foundation  (http://www.apache.org/)."
    Alternately, this  acknowledgment may  appear in the software itself,  if
    and wherever such third-party acknowledgments normally appear.

 4. The names "Jakarta",  "Avalon" and "Apache Software Foundation"  must not
    be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without
    prior  written   permission.   For  written  permission,  please  contact
    apache@apache.org.

 5. Products  derived from this software may not  be called "Apache", nor may
    "Apache" appear  in their name,  without prior written permission  of the
    Apache Software Foundation.

 THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES,
 INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND
 FITNESS  FOR A PARTICULAR  PURPOSE ARE  DISCLAIMED.  IN NO  EVENT SHALL  THE
 APACHE SOFTWARE  FOUNDATION  OR ITS CONTRIBUTORS  BE LIABLE FOR  ANY DIRECT,
 INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL,  EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL  DAMAGES (INCLU-
 DING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT  OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS
 OF USE, DATA, OR  PROFITS; OR BUSINESS  INTERRUPTION)  HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON
 ANY  THEORY OF LIABILITY,  WHETHER  IN CONTRACT,  STRICT LIABILITY,  OR TORT
 (INCLUDING  NEGLIGENCE OR  OTHERWISE) ARISING IN  ANY WAY OUT OF THE  USE OF
 THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

 This software  consists of voluntary contributions made  by many individuals
 on  behalf of the Apache Software  Foundation.  For more  information on the
 Apache Software Foundation, please see <http://www.apache.org/>.

*/
----



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