> Can copyright can be added to modified files or new files be > contributed > under a different (but compatible) license? > > Thanks, > > -Mark
I don't specifically know the policy of the OpenSSL project, but I strongly recommend simply adding them under the project's existing license if the licenses are compatible. If the code's existing license makes additional requirements that make this difficult or impossible, the code probably won't be (and shouldn't be) accepted. The reason is that having code under different licenses complicates maintenance. Someone who, say, cuts/pastes code from one file to another and then modifies it has to decide whether that change requires moving the licenses around, and that can make programmers do lots of irritating lawyering. The classic example is a project with some GPL code and some BSD code. If a programmer who only wishes to license his code under the GPL license modifies a BSD file (or a programmer who wishes to make his code available under the BSD license cuts/pastes some code from the GPL-licensed section into a BSD-licensed file), he has to put his lawyer hat on to decide how to modify the licenses. Programmers don't like to wear laywering hats, nor do they typically do it very well. (Especially in this area which is tricky even for IP lawyers.) Most projects will (and should) make exceptions for self-contained modules, especially if any adaptation code can be made available under the project's license. This allows the project to continue to take advantage of development of that self-contained module under its native license. A good example might be an implementation of a network protocol dual-licensed BSD/GPL with a BSD-licensed adaptation layer for the FreeBSD kernel and a GPL-licensed adaptation layer for the Linux kernel. Nobody wants to have to fix bugs twice. The problem scenario is tightly integrated code under multiple licenses. In that case, the code has to be valuable enough that the inconvenience is worth it. For example, OpenSSL contains software under two different licenses (the SSLeay code). While this is very slightly inconvenient, since the code is critical to the project, it's worth it. (And only very slightly, since the licenses are almost identical, just with different advertising clauses if memory serves me.) DS ______________________________________________________________________ OpenSSL Project http://www.openssl.org Development Mailing List openssl-dev@openssl.org Automated List Manager majord...@openssl.org
