[avr-libc-dev] [RFC] Licensing information

[E. Weddington]

Hello All!

Ok, it's time to bite the bullet.

The LICENSING and AUTHORS file have not been adequate. People who use 
avr-libc and want to put proper attribution in their docs, don't know 
what to put in because the LICENSING file is confusing. And the AUTHORS 
file was not up-to-date.

Attached are IMO what the LICENSING and AUTHORS file should be.

The AUTHORS file contains the list of project administrators (current) 
and a list of authors: determined by anyone who has a copyright on a 
file in the project. If we wanted to, we could also put in a list of 
*contributors*: anybody who has submitted a patch that has been accepted.

The LICENSING file was completely overhauled. It now contains a true 
copyright *statement*, not just a template. All of the copyright years 
and authors have been combined. There is a note in the file to see the 
individual source files for more information. It is noted that 
*portions* of avr-libc are copyright by <the list of authors>.  I feel 
that this a reasonable compromise that executes the spirit of the 
licensing, and importantly it allows users a means of attribution, which 
I feel is the important premise of this file. And for the record, IANAL.

It is also important to note, that avr-libc has *two licenses* governing 
the source. Most of the math library by Michael Stumpf is actually a GPL 
+ exception license. This is now reflected in the LICENSE file. It would 
be nice if this was eventually relicensed to BSD - advertising clause, 
or a substitute could be found that could be licensed as that. Since 
this references the GPL, I think that we should add a file to the 
project, GPL, that contains the GPL license that Michael Stumpf refers to.

Now to the big problem: The original license file said that avr-libc was 
a Modified BSD License (with the No Advertising clause). However the 
"template" that it gave for new authors, only showed the original two 
clauses of the BSD license. It did NOT contain the No Advertising 
clause. Hence there are a lot of new files (for example headers in the 
include/avr directory) that have the 2 clause license. Compare this with 
libc/string/memcpy.S which has the proper 3-clause, no advertising BSD 
license. So, we're going to have to contact a bunch of copyright holders 
and get them to approve a license change. I'm willing to take this on if 
the admins agree. I would imagine that it would be best to make sure to 
CC avr-libc-dev so the author approvals of copyright change are archived 
for posterity.

Note, that I've changed the LICENSE file to show the 3-clause BSD license.

Eric

The contents of avr-libc have two licenses. Most files are licensed with
a Modified BSD License (no advertising clause). Some files in the math
library are licensed with a Modified GPL.

All of this is supposed to be Free Software, Open Source, DFSG-free,
GPL-compatible, and OK to use in both free and proprietary applications.

See the license information in the individual source files for details.

Additions and corrections to this file are welcome.

*******************************************************************************
Portions of avr-libc are Copyright (c) 1999-2004
Keith Gudger,
Steinar Haugen,
Peter Jansen,
Reinhard Jessich,
Magnus Johansson,
Artur Lipowski,
Marek Michalkiewicz,
Colin O'Flynn,
Bob Paddock,
Reiner Patommel,
Michael Rickman,
Theodore A. Roth,
Juergen Schilling,
Philip Soeberg,
Nils Kristian Strom,
Michael Stumpf,
Stefan Swanepoel,
Eric B. Weddington,
Joerg Wunsch. 
All rights reserved.

Portions of avr-libc documentation Copyright (c) 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994
   The Regents of the University of California.


   Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
   modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

   * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
     notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
   
   * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
     notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in
     the documentation and/or other materials provided with the
     distribution.
     
   * Neither the name of the copyright holders nor the names of
     contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived
     from this software without specific prior written permission.

   THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS"
   AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
   IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
   ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE
   LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR
   CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF
   SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS
   INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN
   CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE)
   ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE
   POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. 


Portions of avr-libc are Copyright (c) 2002, Michael Stumpf

  The files contained in fplib are free software; you can redistribute it 
  and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as 
  published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your 
  option) any later version.

  In addition to the permissions in the GNU General Public License, the
  author gives you unlimited permission to link the
  compiled version of this file into combinations with other programs,
  and to distribute those combinations without any restriction coming
  from the use of this file.  (The General Public License restrictions
  do apply in other respects; for example, they cover modification of
  the file, and distribution when not linked into a combine
  executable.)

  This file is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
  WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
  General Public License for more details.

   
*******************************************************************************

Project Administrators
----------------------
Marek Michalkiewicz
Theodore A. Roth
Joerg Wunsch


Authors (in Last Name alphabetical order)
-----------------------------------------
Keith Gudger
Steinar Haugen
Peter Jansen
Reinhard Jessich
Magnus Johansson
Artur Lipowski
Marek Michalkiewicz
Colin O'Flynn
Bob Paddock
Reiner Patommel
Michael Rickman
Theodore A. Roth
Juergen Schilling
Philip Soeberg
Nils Kristian Strom
Michael Stumpf
Stefan Swanepoel
Eric B. Weddington
Joerg Wunsch