Hello,
after converting the U-Boot project to use SPDX meta-tags, we now
started working on another Open Source project; here we face a
somewhat different situation: a large number of the individual source
files do not contain any per-file license header at all. Instead,
they rerely on the fact that they inherit the global, project-wide
license as defined in the top level README and COPYING files.
My understanding is that this is technically and legally clean as is.
However, I see a handling problem here: the conversion of the project
to use SPDX meta-tags will probably be an incremental process, and
there will be some period of time (eventually even a long one) where
still files exist that have not been converted yet.
I would like to define a way to mark such files where implicit
licensing applies, so that we do not have to check these again and
again.
Of course we could insert a license tag corresponding to the actual
project-wide license, but such a modification is considered intrusive
by some of affected people.
I think it would be better (and easier acceptable by the respective
copyright holders) to have some "neutral" SPDX meta-tag that reflects
the fact that this file inherits the project's global license terms.
Would such a meta-tag be acceptable to the SPDX team?
I'm still looking for a good "name" for such a tag; suggestions we
have so far include:
SPDX-License-Identifier: implicit
SPDX-License-Identifier: inherit
SPDX-License-Identifier: none
SPDX-License-Identifier: -
Suggestions and comments welcome...
Best regards,
Wolfgang Denk
--
DENX Software Engineering GmbH, MD: Wolfgang Denk & Detlev Zundel
HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-10 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: [email protected]
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on to success. On the other hand, don't count on it. - T. K. Lawson
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