[U-Boot] [PATCH 1/5 v3] Licenses: introduce SPDX Unique License Identifiers

Wolfgang Denk wd at denx.de
Wed Jul 24 11:05:22 CEST 2013


Like many other projects, U-Boot has a tradition of including big
blocks of License headers in all files.  This not only blows up the
source code with mostly redundant information, but also makes it very
difficult to generate License Clearing Reports.  An additional problem
is that even the same licenses are referred to by a number of
slightly varying text blocks (full, abbreviated, different
indentation, line wrapping and/or white space, with obsolete address
information, ...) which makes automatic processing a nightmare.

To make this easier, such license headers in the source files will be
replaced with a single line reference to Unique License Identifiers
as defined by the Linux Foundation's SPDX project [1].  For example,
in a source file the full "GPL v2.0 or later" header text will be
replaced by a single line:

        SPDX-License-Identifier:        GPL-2.0+

We use the SPDX Unique License Identifiers here; these are available
at [2].

Note: From the legal point of view, this patch is supposed to be only
a change to the textual representation of the license information,
but in no way any change to the actual license terms. With this patch
applied, all files will still be licensed under the same terms they
were before.

Note 2: The apparent difference between the old "COPYING" and the new
"Licenses/gpl-2.0.txt" only results from switching to the upstream
version of the license which is differently formatted; there are not
any actual changes to the content.

Note 3: There are some recurring questions about license issues, such
as:
    - Is a "All Rights Reserved" clause a problem in GPL code?
    - Are files without any license header a problem?
    - Do we need license headers at all?

The following excerpt from an e-mail by Daniel B. Ravicher should help
with these:

| Message-ID: <4ADF8CAA.5030808 at softwarefreedom.org>
| Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:35:22 -0400
| From: "Daniel B. Ravicher" <ravicher at softwarefreedom.org>
| To: Wolfgang Denk <wd at denx.de>
| Subject: Re: GPL and license cleanup questions
|
| Mr. Denk,
|
| Wolfgang Denk wrote:
| > - There are a number of files which do not include any specific
| > license information at all. Is it correct to assume that these files
| > are automatically covered by the "GPL v2 or later" clause as
| > specified by the COPYING file in the top level directory of the
| > U-Boot source tree?
|
| That is a very fact specific analysis and could be different across the
| various files.  However, if the contributor could reasonably be expected
| to have known that the project was licensed GPLv2 or later at the time
| she made her contribution, then a reasonably implication is that she
| consented to her contributions being distributed under those terms.
|
| > - Do such files need any clean up, for example should we add GPL
| > headers to them, or is this not needed?
|
| If the project as a whole is licensed under clear terms, you need not
| identify those same terms in each file, although there is no harm in
| doing so.
|
| > - There are other files, which include both a GPL license header
| > _plus_ some copyright note with an "All Rights Reserved" clause. It
| > has been my understanding that this is a conflict, and me must ask
| > the copyright holders to remove such "All Rights Reserved" clauses.
| > But then, some people claim that "All Rights Reserved" is a no-op
| > nowadays. License checking tools (like OSLC) seem to indicate this is
| > a problem, but then we see quite a lot of "All rights reserved" in
| > BSD-licensed files in gcc and glibc. So what is the correct way to
| > deal with such files?
|
| It is not a conflict to grant a license and also reserve all rights, as
| implicit in that language is that you are reserving all "other" rights
| not granted in the license.  Thus, a file with "Licensed under GPL, All
| Rights Reserved" would mean that it is licensed under the GPL, but no
| other rights are given to copy, modify or redistribute it.
|
| Warm regards,
| --Dan
|
| Daniel B. Ravicher, Legal Director
| Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) and Moglen Ravicher LLC
| 1995 Broadway, 17th Fl., New York, NY 10023
| (212) 461-1902 direct  (212) 580-0800 main  (212) 580-0898 fax
| ravicher at softwarefreedom.org   www.softwarefreedom.org

[1] http://spdx.org/
[2] http://spdx.org/licenses/

Signed-off-by: Wolfgang Denk <wd at denx.de>
---
changes for v3: fix spelling errors
changes for v2:
	- Re-added the general introductory part to Licenses/README
	- Also re-added the standalone license exception (as separate
	  file Licenses/Exceptions)

 Licenses/Exceptions             |  15 ++++++
 Licenses/README                 |  49 +++++++++++++++++
 COPYING => Licenses/gpl-2.0.txt | 113 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++--------------
 MAKEALL                         |   2 +
 Makefile                        |  20 +------
 README                          |  20 +------
 config.mk                       |  21 +-------
 mkconfig                        |   4 +-
 rules.mk                        |  21 +-------
 9 files changed, 150 insertions(+), 115 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 Licenses/Exceptions
 create mode 100644 Licenses/README
 rename COPYING => Licenses/gpl-2.0.txt (81%)

diff --git a/Licenses/Exceptions b/Licenses/Exceptions
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c9b3cd9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Licenses/Exceptions
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+
+GPL License Exception:
+
+Even though U-Boot in general is covered by the GPL-2.0/GPL-2.0+,
+this does *not* cover the so-called "standalone" applications that
+use U-Boot services by means of the jump table provided by U-Boot
+exactly for this purpose - this is merely considered normal use of
+U-Boot, and does *not* fall under the heading of "derived work".
+
+  The header files "include/image.h" and "arch/*/include/asm/u-boot.h"
+define interfaces to U-Boot.  Including these (unmodified) header
+files in another file is considered normal use of U-Boot, and does
+*not* fall under the heading of "derived work".
+-- Wolfgang Denk
+
diff --git a/Licenses/README b/Licenses/README
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8371ba7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Licenses/README
@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+  U-Boot is Free Software.  It is copyrighted by Wolfgang Denk and
+many others who contributed code (see the actual source code and the
+git commit messages for details).  You can redistribute U-Boot and/or
+modify it under the terms of version 2 of the GNU General Public
+License as published by the Free Software Foundation.  Most of it can
+also be distributed, at your option, under any later version of the
+GNU General Public License -- see individual files for exceptions.
+
+  NOTE! This license does *not* cover the so-called "standalone"
+applications that use U-Boot services by means of the jump table
+provided by U-Boot exactly for this purpose - this is merely
+considered normal use of U-Boot, and does *not* fall under the
+heading of "derived work" -- see file  Licenses/Exceptions  for
+details.
+
+  Also note that the GPL and the other licenses are copyrighted by
+the Free Software Foundation and other organizations, but the
+instance of code that they refer to (the U-Boot source code) is
+copyrighted by me and others who actually wrote it.
+-- Wolfgang Denk
+
+
+Like many other projects, U-Boot has a tradition of including big
+blocks of License headers in all files.  This not only blows up the
+source code with mostly redundant information, but also makes it very
+difficult to generate License Clearing Reports.  An additional problem
+is that even the same licenses are referred to by a number of
+slightly varying text blocks (full, abbreviated, different
+indentation, line wrapping and/or white space, with obsolete address
+information, ...) which makes automatic processing a nightmare.
+
+To make this easier, such license headers in the source files will be
+replaced with a single line reference to Unique License Identifiers
+as defined by the Linux Foundation's SPDX project [1].  For example,
+in a source file the full "GPL v2.0 or later" header text will be
+replaced by a single line:
+
+	SPDX-License-Identifier:	GPL-2.0+
+
+We use the SPDX Unique License Identifiers here; these are available
+at [2].
+
+[1] http://spdx.org/
+[2] http://spdx.org/licenses/
+
+Full name					SPDX Identifier	OSI Approved	File name	URI
+=======================================================================================================================================
+GNU General Public License v2.0 only		GPL-2.0		Y		gpl-2.0.txt	http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.txt
+GNU General Public License v2.0 or later	GPL-2.0+	Y		gpl-2.0.txt	http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.txt
diff --git a/COPYING b/Licenses/gpl-2.0.txt
similarity index 81%
rename from COPYING
rename to Licenses/gpl-2.0.txt
index 44d1983..d159169 100644
--- a/COPYING
+++ b/Licenses/gpl-2.0.txt
@@ -1,38 +1,12 @@
-  U-Boot is Free Software.  It is copyrighted by Wolfgang Denk and
-many others who contributed code (see the actual source code for
-details).  You can redistribute U-Boot and/or modify it under the
-terms of version 2 of the GNU General Public License as published by
-the Free Software Foundation.  Most of it can also be distributed,
-at your option, under any later version of the GNU General Public
-License -- see individual files for exceptions.
-
-  NOTE! This license does *not* cover the so-called "standalone"
-applications that use U-Boot services by means of the jump table
-provided by U-Boot exactly for this purpose - this is merely
-considered normal use of U-Boot, and does *not* fall under the
-heading of "derived work".
-
-  The header files "include/image.h" and "include/asm-*/u-boot.h"
-define interfaces to U-Boot. Including these (unmodified) header
-files in another file is considered normal use of U-Boot, and does
-*not* fall under the heading of "derived work".
-
-  Also note that the GPL below is copyrighted by the Free Software
-Foundation, but the instance of code that it refers to (the U-Boot
-source code) is copyrighted by me and others who actually wrote it.
--- Wolfgang Denk
-
-=======================================================================
-
-		    GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
-		       Version 2, June 1991
-
- Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
-     59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA
+                    GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
+                       Version 2, June 1991
+
+ Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
+ 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
  Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
  of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
 
-			    Preamble
+                            Preamble
 
   The licenses for most software are designed to take away your
 freedom to share and change it.  By contrast, the GNU General Public
@@ -41,7 +15,7 @@ software--to make sure the software is free for all its users.  This
 General Public License applies to most of the Free Software
 Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to
 using it.  (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by
-the GNU Library General Public License instead.)  You can apply it to
+the GNU Lesser General Public License instead.)  You can apply it to
 your programs, too.
 
   When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
@@ -81,8 +55,8 @@ patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.
 
   The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
 modification follow.
-
-		    GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
+
+                    GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
    TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
 
   0. This License applies to any program or other work which contains
@@ -136,7 +110,7 @@ above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:
     License.  (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but
     does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on
     the Program is not required to print an announcement.)
-
+
 These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole.  If
 identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program,
 and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in
@@ -194,7 +168,7 @@ access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent
 access to copy the source code from the same place counts as
 distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not
 compelled to copy the source along with the object code.
-
+
   4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program
 except as expressly provided under this License.  Any attempt
 otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is
@@ -251,7 +225,7 @@ impose that choice.
 
 This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to
 be a consequence of the rest of this License.
-
+
   8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in
 certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the
 original copyright holder who places the Program under this License
@@ -281,7 +255,7 @@ make exceptions for this.  Our decision will be guided by the two goals
 of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and
 of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.
 
-			    NO WARRANTY
+                            NO WARRANTY
 
   11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY
 FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.  EXCEPT WHEN
@@ -303,4 +277,63 @@ YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER
 PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE
 POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
 
-		     END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
+                     END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
+
+            How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
+
+  If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
+possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
+free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.
+
+  To do so, attach the following notices to the program.  It is safest
+to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
+convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least
+the "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
+
+    <one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.>
+    Copyright (C) <year>  <name of author>
+
+    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+    the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
+    (at your option) any later version.
+
+    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+    GNU General Public License for more details.
+
+    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
+    with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
+    51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
+
+Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.
+
+If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this
+when it starts in an interactive mode:
+
+    Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) year name of author
+    Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `show w'.
+    This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
+    under certain conditions; type `show c' for details.
+
+The hypothetical commands `show w' and `show c' should show the appropriate
+parts of the General Public License.  Of course, the commands you use may
+be called something other than `show w' and `show c'; they could even be
+mouse-clicks or menu items--whatever suits your program.
+
+You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your
+school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program, if
+necessary.  Here is a sample; alter the names:
+
+  Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program
+  `Gnomovision' (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker.
+
+  <signature of Ty Coon>, 1 April 1989
+  Ty Coon, President of Vice
+
+This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into
+proprietary programs.  If your program is a subroutine library, you may
+consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the
+library.  If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Lesser General
+Public License instead of this License.
diff --git a/MAKEALL b/MAKEALL
index 2e16e0d..4bc1e56 100755
--- a/MAKEALL
+++ b/MAKEALL
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 # Tool mainly for U-Boot Quality Assurance: build one or more board
 # configurations with minimal verbosity, showing only warnings and
 # errors.
+#
+# SPDX-License-Identifier:	GPL-2.0+
 
 usage()
 {
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 446c2f8..4a0c773 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,24 +1,8 @@
 #
-# (C) Copyright 2000-2012
+# (C) Copyright 2000-2013
 # Wolfgang Denk, DENX Software Engineering, wd at denx.de.
 #
-# See file CREDITS for list of people who contributed to this
-# project.
-#
-# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
-# modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
-# published by the Free Software Foundatio; either version 2 of
-# the License, or (at your option) any later version.
-#
-# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
-# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
-# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.	See the
-# GNU General Public License for more details.
-#
-# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
-# along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
-# Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston,
-# MA 02111-1307 USA
+# SPDX-License-Identifier:	GPL-2.0+
 #
 
 VERSION = 2013
diff --git a/README b/README
index 85e5a8d..231910e 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -1,24 +1,8 @@
 #
-# (C) Copyright 2000 - 2012
+# (C) Copyright 2000 - 2013
 # Wolfgang Denk, DENX Software Engineering, wd at denx.de.
 #
-# See file CREDITS for list of people who contributed to this
-# project.
-#
-# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
-# modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
-# published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of
-# the License, or (at your option) any later version.
-#
-# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
-# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
-# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.	See the
-# GNU General Public License for more details.
-#
-# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
-# along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
-# Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston,
-# MA 02111-1307 USA
+# SPDX-License-Identifier:	GPL-2.0+
 #
 
 Summary:
diff --git a/config.mk b/config.mk
index 81c2584..7888846 100644
--- a/config.mk
+++ b/config.mk
@@ -1,26 +1,9 @@
 #
-# (C) Copyright 2000-2006
+# (C) Copyright 2000-2013
 # Wolfgang Denk, DENX Software Engineering, wd at denx.de.
 #
-# See file CREDITS for list of people who contributed to this
-# project.
+# SPDX-License-Identifier:	GPL-2.0+
 #
-# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
-# modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
-# published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of
-# the License, or (at your option) any later version.
-#
-# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
-# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
-# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.	See the
-# GNU General Public License for more details.
-#
-# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
-# along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
-# Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston,
-# MA 02111-1307 USA
-#
-
 #########################################################################
 
 # Set shell to bash if possible, otherwise fall back to sh
diff --git a/mkconfig b/mkconfig
index 73f852e..816ae3d 100755
--- a/mkconfig
+++ b/mkconfig
@@ -5,7 +5,9 @@
 #
 # Parameters:  Target  Architecture  CPU  Board [VENDOR] [SOC]
 #
-# (C) 2002-2010 DENX Software Engineering, Wolfgang Denk <wd at denx.de>
+# (C) 2002-2013 DENX Software Engineering, Wolfgang Denk <wd at denx.de>
+#
+# SPDX-License-Identifier:	GPL-2.0+
 #
 
 APPEND=no	# Default: Create new config file
diff --git a/rules.mk b/rules.mk
index fa929f9..f4510b7 100644
--- a/rules.mk
+++ b/rules.mk
@@ -1,26 +1,9 @@
 #
-# (C) Copyright 2006
+# (C) Copyright 2006-2013
 # Wolfgang Denk, DENX Software Engineering, wd at denx.de.
 #
-# See file CREDITS for list of people who contributed to this
-# project.
+# SPDX-License-Identifier:	GPL-2.0+
 #
-# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
-# modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
-# published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of
-# the License, or (at your option) any later version.
-#
-# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
-# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
-# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
-# GNU General Public License for more details.
-#
-# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
-# along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
-# Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston,
-# MA 02111-1307 USA
-#
-
 #########################################################################
 
 _depend:	$(obj).depend
-- 
1.8.1.4



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