Re: [gentoo-project] rfc: copyright attribution clarifications

[Ulrich Mueller <ulm@gentoo.org>]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1987 bytes --]

>>>>> On Sat, 24 Nov 2018, Alec Warner wrote:

> I don't believe the technical arguments have much basis; instead the
> argument is about community and humanpower.

>  - There is an argument (non technical) that files in the ebuild
> repository should carry a copyright notice to signal that the content
> has a copyright.
>  - A GLEP was written (glep76) to standardize what this should be. One
> of the (unstated) goals of the GLEP is to avoid spending time managing
> the copyright declarations; so it was decided to have 2 forms, the
> short form ("Gentoo Authors") and the traditional form (for when we
> import code and cannot remove notices.)

Exactly.

> The crux of the argument is about the maintenance of these copyright
> notices; not about the bytes they occupy or the CPU time spend reading
> them.

>  - When is it allowed to add extra notices?
>  - When is it allowed to remove extra notices?

> This is ultimately the problem I think we see with the SEI
> attribution. We don't understand *why* Sony wants the notice there and
> because of that we don't understand the answers to the above.

We don't understand it because they refuse to give us an explanation.
Which is not our fault.

> What I want to avoid happening is getting sued by Sony because the
> notices were added and then later removed; but we have not received
> guidance on this and I think it blocks us moving forward.

I don't see anything in the GPL-2 that would prevent us from removing
redundant copyright notices.

For example, the FDL-1.3 requires in section 4.D. to "Preserve all the
copyright notices of the Document", and the CC-BY-SA licenses contain
similar wording. However, such a clause can neither be found in the
GPL-2 nor in the GPL-3. In fact, the GPL-3 clarifies in section 7 that
it can be *supplemented* with terms "requiring preservation of specified
reasonable legal notices or author attributions", but the license itself
doesn't require this.

Disclaimer: IANAL, TINLA.

Ulrich

[-- Attachment #2: signature.asc --]
[-- Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 487 bytes --]