Allow specifying the license with an HTTP header

[Julius Schwartzenberg]

Hi all,

An issue I keep running into is that LibreJS has difficulty with 
detecting the freeness of JavaScript.

A recent example is the FSF member forum, this issue was also discussed 
there. This is interesting considering that as an end user I know that 
any program served from the fsf.org domain will be free.

It appears that it is relatively difficult for webmasters to specify the 
license for their content in a way that is recognized by LibreJS.

An idea I came up with would be to standardize a new HTTP header, 
something along the lines of "content-license". It would seem 
appropriate to have such a header any time along a "content-type" header.

On the server side, a webmaster could configure a default license for 
all the content served and specify exceptions at deeper levels. 
Different default licenses could be specified for different content types.

On the client side, a browser could display license information in its 
UI. This might also appeal to users that are careless about the freeness 
of the programs their computer executes, but who would be interested in 
incorporating something in their own work they might come across while 
surfing the web.

The license information could also be provided for downloads. Companies 
typically want to avoid employees to obtain software for which they do 
not have a user license. Non-free/unlicensed software could trigger a 
browser warning whereas free software could pass through unaffected.
Recently I also read that Google is providing license information in its 
image search. This would also benefit from a standardized HTTP header.

What do you think of these ideas? Has it been considered to look into 
using an HTTP header for this purpose? How would standardization bodies 
respond?

Thanks a lot!
Julius