Re: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH v1] doc: add SPDX Licence to doc files

[Hemant Agrawal <hemant.agrawal@nxp.com>]

Hi Ferruh,

On 5/30/2018 4:18 PM, Kovacevic, Marko wrote:
>>> [Hemant] I got following recommendation from the Linux Foundation legal:
>>> "For files that are e.g. release scripts and documentation, these 
>>> are typically understood to consist of contributions that are 
>>> copyrighted by their contributors. So even if there isn't a notice 
>>> in the file, it would still generally be understood to be subject to its contributors'
>>> copyrights and to be licensed out under an open source license.
>>>
>>> As you suggested, adding copyright and license notices can help 
>>> clarify these specifics for downstream uses. We have recommended as 
>>> best practices that projects add something like "Copyright The 
>>> _________ Project" or "Copyright The __________ contributors". I 
>>> think your suggestion of "Copyright The DPDK Community" is fine. And 
>>> yes, I'd recommend including the appropriate license notice and/or 
>>> SPDX identifier in these files as well.
>>> Just to be clear, also, we _don't_ recommend removing pre-existing 
>>> copyright notices unless you are the copyright holder in question.
>>> It's generally understood that it's fine to add general copyright 
>>> notices where accurate, but only the copyright holder should remove 
>>> or modify their own notices. "
>>>
>>> [Hemant] So, "The DPDK Project" or "The DPDK contributors" or "The 
>>> DPDK community" - anything is fine, we have to use just one of these 
>>> consistently.
> 
> 
> After some discussion intel would prefer to keep the license as is on the release notes. 
> Other contributors/companies can add respective SPDX license for their 
> contributions

Hi Hemant,

Would it matter if keep the Intel copyright in the release notes that already have it, and add "The DPDK contributors" as a new copyright holder?

And for the ones don't have any copyright, add only "The DPDK contributors".

[Hemant]  agree. There is no need to remove the existing copy rights. However the new files which are generic should have the generic copyright. 

It is sometimes not easy call to give a go to remove an existing copyright, even for release notes ...


Regards,
 Hemant