Re: Licensecheck returns UNKOWN, but it's GPL
Luca Niccoli <lultimouomo@gmail.com> writes:
> Souce files of the program I'm packaging contain the following header:
>
> /* fswebcam - Small and simple webcam for *nix */
> /*===========================================================*/
> /* Copyright (C)2005-2006 Philip Heron <phil@firestorm.cx> */
> /* */
> /* This program is distributed under the terms of the GNU */
> /* General Public License, version 2. You may use, modify, */
> /* and redistribute it under the terms of this license. A */
> /* copy should be included with this source. */
>
> which isn't recognised as a GPL license statement by licensecheck.
The ‘licensecheck’ tool is a guide only. It uses simple pattern
matching to detect some well-known license grant texts, but can't hope
to catch them all. The above is not one recognised by its existing
patterns.
> Simply ignore it
The above is a valid license grant IMO, so you shouldn't ignore it.
> file a bug against licensecheck
The ‘licensecheck’ tool shouldn't attempt to cover every possible
wording of a license grant; that would require natural language
parsing at the least. Unless it misses wordings that are *very*
common, I would say there isn't yet a bug in the tool.
> file a bug against upstream?
You could politely request upstream to use a more common wording of
the license grant. On the other hand, IMO there's nothing wrong with
the wording as it is, so upstream could just as politely decline your
request :-)
> What should I do?
Use ‘licensecheck’ as an initial step, but never a last step. Always
examine every file in any upstream work you want to package to see
what the license grants actually are.
--
\ “The right to search for truth implies also a duty; one must |
`\ not conceal any part of what one has recognized to be true.” |
_o__) —Albert Einstein |
Ben Finney
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