Re: Bug#180798: ITP: multisync -- A program to syncronize PIM data

[Henning Makholm <henning@makholm.net>]

Scripsit Don Armstrong <don@donarmstrong.com>

> Mikael, if you could get Bo to change his copyright statement to this,

> In addition, as a special exception, Bo Lincoln gives permission to
> link the code of this program with the OpenSSL library (or with
[blah blah]

Just a random thought: There used to be an informal rule saying,
"never write a false statement on the blackboard". Some student is
bound to mindlessly copy it down and take it for truth.

I wonder if it wouldn't be a good idea to apply this to license
statements too: Never write an example statement saying that
such-and-such software is under such-and-such license without
mildly obfuscating the name of the program and its author.

I mean, often the only evidence we have that a certain program is
under a certain license is that there exists, somewhere, a plain ascii
text file claiming so. Sometimes licenses have to be dug up by google
searches and similar less-than-trustworthy techniques because the
upstream author's own download page happily ignores the legal
nitty-gritty.

In such case it could have potentially troubleful to have real-life
license statements floating aroung, and probably quoted out of context
by people who are not careful with relating the full context of the
quote. Major legal disasters *might* result if such a dummy were, by
accident, to be interpreted as the real thing. Let's not write dummies
for which this is possible.

-- 
Henning Makholm                      "The compile-time type checker for this
                           language has proved to be a valuable filter which
                      traps a significant proportion of programming errors."