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Re: Follow REUSE best practices for licensing/copyright

From: Max Mehl via curl-library <curl-library_at_lists.haxx.se>
Date: Tue, 17 May 2022 12:23:17 +0200

~ Daniel Stenberg [2022-05-17 11:28 +0200]:
> On Tue, 17 May 2022, Max Mehl via curl-library wrote:
>> Do you already know whether *all* files in the repository are under the curl
>> license and "Copyright (C) 1998 - 2022, Daniel Stenberg, <daniel_at_haxx.se>,
>> et al."?
>
> The curl license covers everything except lib/krb5.c (which is 3-clause BSD
> style)

Good to know, thank you. I added this to the pull request I just opened:
https://github.com/curl/curl/pull/8869

> The copyrights are varying. I have most of them but there are plenty of other
> copyright holders as well in different parts.

The way how you would like to communicate this is up to you [^1]. In my
examples I stick with the default copyright line for now.

>> As we would also cover insignificant files such as configuration files,
>> shall they also be just under the curl license or would you tend towards
>> making them similar to public domain?
>
> We cannot willingly make things "public domain" where I live and work, so no
> they are not. I would say that all files in the curl repository, unless stated
> otherwise, are distributed under the same license.

That makes sense. Regarding public domain, some use CC0 [^2] or
Unlicense [^3] or a very unprotective license such as MIT to reach a
similar goal. But I personally also like using the "default" license for
this.

>> depending on whether you would like to stick with updating the years
>
> I would.
>
>> (which is not really necessary/useful as many argue [^1]).
>
> There are also those who argue otherwise. We stick to it.

No problem, I adapted this in the pull request.

Best,
Max


[^1]: https://reuse.software/faq/#many-copyright-statements

[^2]: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

[^3]: https://unlicense.org/

-- 
Max Mehl - Programme Manager -- Free Software Foundation Europe
Contact and information: https://fsfe.org/about/mehl -- _at_mxmehl
The FSFE is a charity that empowers users to control technology
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Received on 2022-05-17