Status of code licensed to the ASF but not submitted to the ASF

[Robert Munteanu <ro...@apache.org>]

Hi,

Out of curiosity, what is the legal status of code that is declared as
'Licensed to the ASF' but hosted in other repositories? I am looking at
some Maven plug-ins that hosted by Mojohaus but include ASF copyright
headers.

See for instance [1] and [2].

Thanks,

Robert


[1]: https://github.com/mojohaus/versions-maven-plugin/blob/master/src/
main/java/org/codehaus/mojo/versions/AbstractVersionsReport.java
[2]: https://github.com/mojohaus/versions-maven-plugin/blob/master/src/
main/java/org/codehaus/mojo/versions/AbstractVersionsReport.java

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Re: Status of code licensed to the ASF but not submitted to the ASF

[Shane Curcuru <as...@shanecurcuru.org>]

Bertrand Delacretaz wrote on 10/3/17 5:22 AM:
> Hi Robert,
> 
> On Tue, Oct 3, 2017 at 10:48 AM, Robert Munteanu <ro...@apache.org> wrote:
>> ...Out of curiosity, what is the legal status of code that is declared as
>> 'Licensed to the ASF' but hosted in other repositories?...
> 
> I suspect that mostly happens when people copy our license headers in
> their code, without paying attention to that statement.

Similarly, the ASF can't give you legal advice, and certainly not about
code that's not in an Apache repository.

If it's in an Apache repository (our SVN or our github organization)
then it should have a clear LICENSE and NOTICE for the Apache project as
a whole clearly showing what licenses different files are under.

Otherwise, it's best to assume there's no specific legal status between
any code or license you find on the internet and the ASF itself.
Anything the ASF manages will be explicitly on our domain or
organizational ownership.

-- 

- Shane
  https://www.apache.org/foundation/marks/resources

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Re: Status of code licensed to the ASF but not submitted to the ASF

[Christopher <ct...@apache.org>]

On Tue, Oct 3, 2017 at 5:22 AM Bertrand Delacretaz <bd...@apache.org>
wrote:

> Hi Robert,
>
> On Tue, Oct 3, 2017 at 10:48 AM, Robert Munteanu <ro...@apache.org>
> wrote:
> > ...Out of curiosity, what is the legal status of code that is declared as
> > 'Licensed to the ASF' but hosted in other repositories?...
>
> I suspect that mostly happens when people copy our license headers in
> their code, without paying attention to that statement.
>
>
I've made this mistake in the past when switching between ASF projects and
other ALv2 projects, because I use code templates in my IDE when creating a
new file.

Personally, I'd rather see ASF use the header described in the LICENSE
itself (without the Copyright portion, since that is managed in the NOTICE
file). I don't think most end users care that it came to be under ALv2 via
a contribution to ASF under one or more CLAs ... . Most probably only care
that it is now ALv2. End users can't track the provenance of these CLAs to
which the header alludes anyway; so, I don't know what value it really
adds. Perhaps there's some technical reason I don't know about, but I'd
find this difficult to accept, since the headers are optional as far as the
LICENSE is concerned; they're only required by policy. So, this subtle
difference in header can't be that critical.

Two different headers certain can create confusion, though, especially if
it's prone to people making mistakes like this.

Re: Status of code licensed to the ASF but not submitted to the ASF

[Bertrand Delacretaz <bd...@apache.org>]

Hi Robert,

On Tue, Oct 3, 2017 at 10:48 AM, Robert Munteanu <ro...@apache.org> wrote:
> ...Out of curiosity, what is the legal status of code that is declared as
> 'Licensed to the ASF' but hosted in other repositories?...

I suspect that mostly happens when people copy our license headers in
their code, without paying attention to that statement.

-Bertrand

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