Re: [PATCH 05/12] include/hw: replace FSF postal address with licenses URL

[Daniel P . Berrangé]

On Mon, Jun 16, 2025 at 09:29:35AM +0200, Cédric Le Goater wrote:
> On 6/16/25 09:13, Daniel P. Berrangé wrote:
> > On Sat, Jun 14, 2025 at 07:29:09AM +0200, Cédric Le Goater wrote:
> > > Hello Sean,
> > > 
> > > On 6/13/25 18:44, Sean Wei wrote:
> > > > Some of the GPLv2 boiler-plate still contained the
> > > > obsolete "51 Franklin Street" postal address.
> > > > 
> > > > Replace it with the canonical GNU licenses URL recommended by the FSF:
> > > > https://www.gnu.org/licenses/
> > > > 
> > > > Signed-off-by: Sean Wei <me@sean.taipei>
> > > 
> > > Instead,  I would remove the license boiler plate and add :
> > > 
> > >    SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later
> > 
> > This is *NOT* something we are doing for existing code sources,
> > unless the person removing it is the exclusive copyright
> > holder on the file.
> Ah. So I misunderstood.
> 
> How is license boiler plate different from the SPDX identifier tag ?

It achieves the same aims, but notice GPL clause 1

  "keep intact all the notices that refer to this License and
   to the absence of any warranty;"

and yes, some projects have none the less done a wholesale replacement of
boilerplate. I don't know how they rationalized ignoring this license
requirement. It is simpler to just preserve boilerplate as-is that to
debate the legal nuances of this.

With regards,
Daniel
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