Dear legal,
While checking the contents of our `perl' package, I noticed the following:
(...)
/* NOTE: this is derived from Henry Spencer's regexp code, and should not * confused with the original package (see point 3 below). Thanks, Henry! */
/* Additional note: this code is very heavily munged from Henry's version * in places. In some spots I've traded clarity for efficiency, so don't * blame Henry for some of the lack of readability. */
/* The names of the functions have been changed from regcomp and * regexec to pregcomp and pregexec in order to avoid conflicts * with the POSIX routines of the same names. */
(...)
* pregcomp and pregexec -- regsub and regerror are not used in perl * * Copyright (c) 1986 by University of Toronto. * Written by Henry Spencer. Not derived from licensed software. * * Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any * purpose on any computer system, and to redistribute it freely, * subject to the following restrictions: * * 1. The author is not responsible for the consequences of use of * this software, no matter how awful, even if they arise * from defects in it. * * 2. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented, either * by explicit claim or by omission. * * 3. Altered versions must be plainly marked as such, and must not * be misrepresented as being the original software. * **** Alterations to Henry's code are... **** **** Copyright (C) 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, **** 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 **** by Larry Wall and others **** **** You may distribute under the terms of either the GNU General Public **** License or the Artistic License, as specified in the README file.
(...)
You can see the whole file here: https://metacpan.org/source/SHAY/perl-5.20.1/regexec.c
I looked but couldn't find any common name for this license of Henry's. Is it on our list? Is it free? What name should I use in the License tag?
Thank you, Petr
On 03/10/2015 05:18 PM, Petr Šabata wrote:
(...)
You can see the whole file here: https://metacpan.org/source/SHAY/perl-5.20.1/regexec.c
I looked but couldn't find any common name for this license of Henry's. Is it on our list? Is it free? What name should I use in the License tag?
This old license implies a right to modify (clause 3) but doesn't clearly grant that right. Normally, I'd ask for us to try to reach out to the copyright holder (Henry Spencer) to clarify it, but he seems to have done so in 1992-1994:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/license-regex.html
This version of his license clearly grants permission to "alter" and redistribute, but requires that "credits" appear in the documentation. With those changes, the license is clearly free.
For Fedora, including this license text as %license should be sufficient to meet this requirement.
In summary:
1) Please ask upstream perl to inherit the newer license for Henry Spencer's Reg-Ex library (the mysql one). 2) Please include a copy of this newer license text as a file in the perl package, marked as %license. 3) Adjust the license tag to include "HSRL".
~tom
== Red Hat
On Thu, Mar 12, 2015 at 02:54:16PM -0400, Tom Callaway wrote:
On 03/10/2015 05:18 PM, Petr Šabata wrote:
(...)
You can see the whole file here: https://metacpan.org/source/SHAY/perl-5.20.1/regexec.c
I looked but couldn't find any common name for this license of Henry's. Is it on our list? Is it free? What name should I use in the License tag?
This old license implies a right to modify (clause 3) but doesn't clearly grant that right. Normally, I'd ask for us to try to reach out to the copyright holder (Henry Spencer) to clarify it, but he seems to have done so in 1992-1994:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/license-regex.html
This version of his license clearly grants permission to "alter" and redistribute, but requires that "credits" appear in the documentation. With those changes, the license is clearly free.
For Fedora, including this license text as %license should be sufficient to meet this requirement.
In summary:
- Please ask upstream perl to inherit the newer license for Henry
Spencer's Reg-Ex library (the mysql one). 2) Please include a copy of this newer license text as a file in the perl package, marked as %license. 3) Adjust the license tag to include "HSRL".
~tom
Thank you, Tom. Will do.
I found one more license in perl which I'm not sure about; according to the source comments, this comes from metamail:
Copyright (c) 1991 Bell Communications Research, Inc. (Bellcore)
Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this material for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies, and that the name of Bellcore not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to this material without the specific, prior written permission of an authorized representative of Bellcore. BELLCORE MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE ACCURACY OR SUITABILITY OF THIS MATERIAL FOR ANY PURPOSE. IT IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES.
Full source: https://metacpan.org/source/SHAY/perl-5.20.1/cpan/MIME-Base64/Base64.xs
That's the last one :)
Thank you, P
Just a ping on this one. P
On Fri, Mar 13, 2015 at 10:41:16AM +0100, Petr Šabata wrote:
I found one more license in perl which I'm not sure about; according to the source comments, this comes from metamail:
Copyright (c) 1991 Bell Communications Research, Inc. (Bellcore)
Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this material for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies, and that the name of Bellcore not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to this material without the specific, prior written permission of an authorized representative of Bellcore. BELLCORE MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE ACCURACY OR SUITABILITY OF THIS MATERIAL FOR ANY PURPOSE. IT IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES.
Full source: https://metacpan.org/source/SHAY/perl-5.20.1/cpan/MIME-Base64/Base64.xs
That's the last one :)
Thank you, P
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On 03/13/2015 05:41 AM, Petr Šabata wrote:
I found one more license in perl which I'm not sure about; according to the source comments, this comes from metamail:
Copyright (c) 1991 Bell Communications Research, Inc. (Bellcore)
Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this material for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies, and that the name of Bellcore not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to this material without the specific, prior written permission of an authorized representative of Bellcore. BELLCORE MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE ACCURACY OR SUITABILITY OF THIS MATERIAL FOR ANY PURPOSE. IT IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES.
This is yet another MIT variant. Just use MIT here.
~tom
== Red Hat
"TC" == Tom Callaway tcallawa@redhat.com writes:
TC> 3) Adjust the license tag to include "HSRL".
Sorry to keep asking crazy nitpicky questions, but would this have any effect on on all of those Perl packages which don't include a license other than "same as Perl".?
- J<
On Fri, Mar 13, 2015 at 05:41:50PM -0500, Jason L Tibbitts III wrote:
"TC" == Tom Callaway tcallawa@redhat.com writes:
TC> 3) Adjust the license tag to include "HSRL".
Sorry to keep asking crazy nitpicky questions, but would this have any effect on on all of those Perl packages which don't include a license other than "same as Perl".?
- J<
In my opinion when people use `the same as Perl' they mean the official `GPL+ or Artistic' as stated on the website and in perl's README file (http://dev.perl.org/licenses/), not the combination of licenses all the core modules and some parts of the interpreter happen to use in some specific release.
IANAL, though.
P
On 03/16/2015 04:41 AM, Petr Šabata wrote:
On Fri, Mar 13, 2015 at 05:41:50PM -0500, Jason L Tibbitts III wrote:
> "TC" == Tom Callaway tcallawa@redhat.com writes:
TC> 3) Adjust the license tag to include "HSRL".
Sorry to keep asking crazy nitpicky questions, but would this have any effect on on all of those Perl packages which don't include a license other than "same as Perl".?
- J<
In my opinion when people use `the same as Perl' they mean the official `GPL+ or Artistic' as stated on the website and in perl's README file (http://dev.perl.org/licenses/), not the combination of licenses all the core modules and some parts of the interpreter happen to use in some specific release.
Yeah, this is what "same as perl" means to me as well.
~tom
== Red Hat
-
Jason L Tibbitts III -
Petr Šabata -
Tom Callaway