On Fri, Mar 18, 2016 at 9:35 PM, Rich Felker <dalias@libc.org> wrote:
On Fri, Mar 18, 2016 at 07:47:21PM +0000, George Kulakowski wrote:
> I wanted to mention another small thing, which is simply to update the
> names of some files specifically mentioned in COPYRIGHT. I've attached a
> diff.
Thanks. Applied.
Rich
Some comments on the proposed COPYRIGHT text...
"""
The implementation of blowfish crypt (src/misc/crypt_blowfish.c) was originally written by Solar Designer and placed into the public domain. The code also comes with a fallback permissive license for use in jurisdictions that may not recognize the public domain. """
""" The x86_64 port was written by Nicholas J. Kain. Several files (crt) were released into the public domain; others are licensed under the standard MIT license terms at the top of this file. See individual files for their copyright status.
"""
Those paragraphs still reference public domain. We can't use the things mentioned there. WRT the blowfish impl, there are other implementations we can pull if we want / need that - though I'm not sure we even do want that. The x86_64 crt files can be cleanroom'ed here (and we'd release those BSD0 when we're done). If you want to fix in musl, that works for us too, of course. If it's not feasible to fix upstream, it might be good to even more explicitly note which files exactly are meant to be covered by PD -- in the event they have to be surgically removed, that would help. If the per-file headers are up-to-date, that might be fine.
The new text is almost OK. The biggest problem is, you shouldn't comment or speculate on the copyrightability of work inside the license file. Doing so could unintentionally alter or restrict the scope of the license you're attempting to apply. Comments should go in the readme file or another separate file. In the words of one of the lawyers here, "the license file should say X is MIT, Y is BSD, Z is BSD-2, goodbye."
Apparently license files are like code written in English (or other human languages) where the compiler is some future, undetermined group of people. It takes the concept of undefined behavior to a new level...