Re: Distributed files: licenses

[Bob Friesenhahn]

On Tue, 2 Feb 2010, NightStrike wrote:
> What is the convention held by the typical project out there?  I know
> nothing about licenses, nor how to actually handle them.  All insight
> is greatly appreciated.

Copyright information should always be retained and presentable in 
some way in order to satisfy the law.  A requirement to provide a copy 
of the license depends on the terms of the license.  My interpretation 
of GPL is that anyone distributing binaries is required to also 
distribute some notification text.  For example, for GPLv2, it is 
necessary to provide some text in order to satisfy section 3 of the 
license.  Quite a lot of GPL-encumbered software is distributed in 
violation of its license, in spite of good intentions.

A common way to satisfy license requirements is to include 
documentation packages with your binary package, and ensure that the 
documentation packages include a copy of the license, and the 
requisite provision text which allows you to distribute the binaries 
(i.e. your stated obligations).  The recipient needs to be notified 
somehow in a way that they will notice.

Software which uses a GUI installer can display all copyright and 
license information in the installer license text ("Do you accept?") 
area.

Bob
--
Bob Friesenhahn
address@hidden, http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/
GraphicsMagick Maintainer,    http://www.GraphicsMagick.org/