Re: [Repo-criteria-discuss] B2 for Gitlab?

[Aaron Wolf]

On 04/30/2016 05:28 PM, Mike Gerwitz wrote:
> On Sat, Apr 30, 2016 at 13:57:45 -0700, Aaron Wolf wrote:
>> Why is COPYING preferred over LICENSE? As a free software user myself, I
>> was searching for what license software had as a default, and it was not
>> obvious to me at all that COPYING was something to look at. I'm
>> interested in all of the freedoms, and copying is not relevant to all of
>> them. As an end user, COPYING is not an obvious file name to me at all.
>> What's the justification for preferring that name?
> 
> COPYING has always been the file in which the GPL is stored; so it's
> more of a "why LICENSE over COPYING?".
> 
> I do recognize that LICENSE has become more popular, in large part due
> to popular repository hosts.
> 

I don't think that's just a matter of popularity. The term "license"
makes sense in every regard. The GPL is a license, that's what L stands
for. In all forms of discourse, we talk about licenses. We don't talk
about "COPYING files". The term COPYING for this isn't even appropriate
for several reasons. It seems from my view that LICENSE is the accurate,
expected, clear term and would be even if we were starting from day one
with no foundation. "COPYRIGHT LICENSE" would work too.

I don't think popular repository hosts choosing LICENSING is the only
reason it became more popular. It's popular because it's a better choice
for the file name. I'm open to hearing otherwise, but "it's always been
COPYING for the GPL" is a lousy reason, especially when today tons of
repos use the GPL itself in their LICENSE files.

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