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Re: [MoM] Packaging fis-get



On Tue, Feb 07, 2012 at 12:05:21PM -0500, Bhaskar, K.S wrote:
> >$ head -n 10 sr_port/alias_funcs.c
> >/****************************************************************
> >  *                                                              *
> >  *      Copyright 2009, 2011 Fidelity Information Services, Inc *
> >  *                                                              *
> >  *      This source code contains the intellectual property     *
> >  *      of its copyright holder(s), and is made available       *
> >  *      under a license.  If you do not know the terms of       *
> >  *      the license, please stop and do not read further.       *
> >  *                                                              *
> >  ****************************************************************/
> >
> >I actually do not know the terms of thet license because I can only
> >*assume* that the COPYING file (GNU AFFERO) is the relevant licensing
> >information.  I noticed that every file is featuring the text above (in
> >some of them there is "Sanchez Computer Associates, Inc." instead of
> >FIS).
> >
> >This probably should be made more clear at some point, for instance the
> >COPYING file should state explicitely that all files in the
> >subdirectories containing the phrase above are affected or some
> >clarification inside the README file would help as well.
> 
> [KSB] It is packaged this way because the same GT.M source code
> produces binaries that are released under both free / open source as
> well as proprietary licenses (for example, GT.M on AIX is not FOSS).

There is no doubt that you have your reasons for the licensing
information inside the source files.

> Also, some source code (e.g., utility programs, plugins and shell
> scripts) is included in the binary packages.  When we first released
> GT.M under a FOSS license, we were advised by counsel to use a
> header like this on source files and to put the license in the
> COPYING file.

This advise is also perfectly fine.

> The COPYING file is AGPL v3 verbatim.

As far as I understand things there is no written rule that it should
not be possible to add an additional paragraph to this file that
clarifies to which files this text applies and IMHO in the current case
this should be done.

For instance something like

  The following license statement applies to all files in the
  subdirectories specifically those who are featuring the following
  copyright notice:

  <insert your default notice inside code here>


Otherwise at least from my perspective an unwilling reader could assume
that the comment in the code is not connected to the COPYING file
because it is not statet explicitely.  To simplify things for ftpmaster
it is better to make this evident from the beginning.

> We can
> certainly include a readme either as part of the upstream package or
> as part of the Debian package.

It needs to be part of the upstream package to convince ftpmaster
(and it is helpful for non-Debian users as well).

Kind regards

       Andreas. 

-- 
http://fam-tille.de


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