[Savannah-register-public] [task #13205] Submission of Claws Mail

[Ricardo Mones]

Follow-up Comment #8, task #13205 (project administration):

> > It's just a pointer, like own's GPL usage, though less verbose,
> > of course, and much more direct. The pointed file contains all 
> > the information, including copyright and license version. 

> For the reference: I looked at 
> http://git.claws-mail.org/?p=claws.git;a=blob;f=COPYING;h=bd673f83
> It doesn't say files are GPLv3 or later, so I'd interpret this as 
> "GPLv3-only"; 

AFAIK default GPL usage is always 'or later' unless specifically removed, but
there's no problem in clarifying that in the header.

> formally, COPYING is a modification of the GPLv3, which is forbidden. 

That's simply not true, the license in COPYING is bit by bit the content of
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.txt

It's pretty clear where the license starts, and the GPL howto¹ itself says
“In GNU programs the license is usually in a file called COPYING.” not
that the COPYING file must contain *only* the license.

> There are also other practical concerns: let us imagine that the
> files are copied to another project where the texts of licenses 
> (for different files) are GPL, LGPL, MIT and a few more, and 
> COPYING is Apache 2.0; the context would be lost, unlike if you 
> put the notices as the GPL recommends.

There's no way you can defend against bad copying practices: let's imagine
only the code is copied and not the comments, for example. Putting a longer
notice won't prevent this. If the developer doing the copy is aware of
licensing it will incorporate COPYING content into its own COPYING file and/or
do the required modifications so the context is not lost.

Anyway when copying our two-line pointer is pretty clear where the file came:

# This file is part of Claws Mail package.
# See COPYING file for license details.

Even if this appear in a source file of a Foobar project, I think everybody
can understand the license referred there is in the COPYING file of Claws Mail
package, not in other random COPYING files.

¹ http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-howto.en.html

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