Jeremy Harris via Exim-users <exim-users@exim.org> (So 30 Okt 2022 13:22:25 CET): > Does anyone have opinions on the licensing of Exim?
I didn't think about Exim's licensing ever. For me Exim is just Free and
Open Source, whatever this means in detail, but *personally* most
important: no restrictions are applied to Exim's use. (Which means, even
if you're a spammer or terrorist (from my limited point of view), you're
free to use Exim, I may hate you doing so, but I won't deny it.)
But, leaving this private thing aside…
> a) Do we care? Should we label every text file in sight?
> Or not take any action?
I wouldn't care too much right now.
> b) Do existing licence conditions mentioned in specific file matter?
> For example: a few files are commented (my precis) "GPLv2 or later",
> some with "open source, do what you want".
> We could
> - not label such files
> - try to use a label matching the existing text
> - label with the project choice of licence
In theory I'd say the file's license overrides the one provided
globally. But from practial point of view I wouldn't expect a user to
check every single file for the license. (But probably that's what SPDX
then could make a bit easier.)
> c) What license should we label with?
> - Given the dates above, I'm tempted to say that GPLv2-only
> should be taken as the original intent. But I don't know
> how much freedom we have for change, nor what (if any)
> might be preferred.
From a legal point of view (but IANAL by any means), we probably could
find an SPDX identifier matching the *current* license statement of each
individual file, to match the *current* intent. This implicates that
the *current* license is compatible with any previous one or is
confirmed by the holder of the previous license.
Changing *all* files might be doable, but I wouldn't feel comfortable
doing so, because it would require me to understand the licensing
details of every single file.
1) require *new* files having the SPDX identifier
2) (in a 2nd step) require modified files having that identifier
Both should be doable with hooks in our Git repo.
> d) What are the legal implications of doing this labelling?
> Specifically, when different files are differently (not)labelled?
Not sure at all.
Best regards from Dresden/Germany
Viele Grüße aus Dresden
Heiko Schlittermann
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