Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2020 23:52:52 +0000 From: Rick Macklem <rmacklem@uoguelph.ca> To: Mehmet Erol Sanliturk <m.e.sanliturk@gmail.com> Cc: Warner Losh <imp@bsdimp.com>, "freebsd-current@FreeBSD.org" <freebsd-current@FreeBSD.org> Subject: Re: copyright notice question Message-ID: <YTBPR01MB396671C4BCB750DA191EC346DD1C0@YTBPR01MB3966.CANPRD01.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM> In-Reply-To: <CAOgwaMvzqy_78O9kr%2Bur0Ce-HFrD29UQoP0A0NDkRr59k%2B2nQw@mail.gmail.com> References: <YTBPR01MB3966BB2E3C721CE890DD614DDD1F0@YTBPR01MB3966.CANPRD01.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM> <CANCZdfp52eDdH1cb1n_bfuv6AV1X-qaHJD5sAGk=thPOXnXhxw@mail.gmail.com> <YTBPR01MB396697DBC44971FD638E1067DD1C0@YTBPR01MB3966.CANPRD01.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM>, <CAOgwaMvzqy_78O9kr%2Bur0Ce-HFrD29UQoP0A0NDkRr59k%2B2nQw@mail.gmail.com>
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Mehmet Erol Sanliturk wrote:=0A= >On Wed, Oct 21, 2020 at 4:04 AM Rick Macklem <rmacklem@uoguelph.ca<mailto:= rmacklem@uoguelph.ca>> wrote:=0A= >>Warner Losh wrote:=0A= >>>On Mon, Oct 19, 2020, 7:25 PM Rick Macklem <rmacklem@uoguelph.ca<mailto:= rmacklem@uoguelph.ca><mailto:rmacklem@uoguelph.ca<mailto:rmacklem@uoguelph.= ca>>> wrote:=0A= >>>>I'll admit I've hesitated to ask this for a long time, but I guess I ha= ve to;-)=0A= >>>>I've created two daemons for NFS-over-TLS, using the code in=0A= >>>>/usr/src/usr.sbin/gssd/gssd.c as a starting point.=0A= >>>>--> As such, I left the copyright notice from this file on the two file= s.=0A= >>>> (As you can see, it is a 2 clause FreeBSD one, so the terms aren'= t=0A= >>>> an issue.)=0A= >>>>=0A= >>>>What I am wondering is if I should be adding my name to it as an=0A= >>>>additional author or something like that?=0A= >>>>(I don't care, but it does seem a little weird that the copyright is he= ld=0A= >>>> by Isilon Inc, since I have no connection to them.)=0A= >>>=0A= >>>Likely. If you changed a substantial amount, then yes. The rule of thumb= is >50%=0A= >>> is no brainer yes. Smaller percentages require more nuanced judgement a= s to whether the changes are substantial enough to create a new work. Chanc= es are=0A= >>> quite good you fall into one of those categories. Also, if you have rep= laced more=0A= >>>than ~90% chances are good no original work remains. Again, a judgement = call.=0A= >>>There are more technical legal guidelines, but that would require a lawy= er.=0A= >>>=0A= >>>My hunch is that unless this is something far more trivial than I then I= 'd add the=0A= >>> notice, but retaining the old.=0A= >>Well, I'd guess it's somewhere in the 50->90% category.=0A= >>Would just adding a comment below the current copyright notice like:=0A= >>/*=0A= >> * Extensively modified from /usr/src/usr.sbin/gssd.c for RPC-over-TLS=0A= >> * by Rick Macklem.=0A= >> */=0A= >>be sufficient for the project, or should I put a second copyright notice= =0A= >>on it with my name on it? (This will seem odd, since it will have the sam= e=0A= >>terms as the extant one, but if that is what is appropriate for the proje= ct..)=0A= >>=0A= >>It is my understanding (I'm obviously not a lawyer, clearly indicated by = the=0A= >>size of my bank account;-) that a copyright notice can only be changed by= =0A= >>the holder (or with their express permission), but an additional copyrigh= t=0A= >>notice can be attached to the work to cover the re-write.=0A= >>Is this correct? (All amateur lawyers, feel free to respond;-)=0A= >>=0A= >>Thanks for your comments, rick=0A= >>=0A= >>>Warnet=0A= >>=0A= [copyright comment snipped]=0A= >My opinion is as follows :=0A= >=0A= >At the top of the related sources I would include a message ( approximatel= y ) as >follows :=0A= I believe for FreeBSD this would need to be after the main copyright notice= ,=0A= but that is trivial, I think?=0A= =0A= =0A= >After svn ( or git ) modification number(s) ... ( including ) I have mad= e substantial ( or significant ) modifications ( or improvements ) .=0A= >The copyright of these modifications with the present license listed below= are >belong to=0A= >=0A= >Rick Macklem , starting from date .....=0A= > ( Rick Macklem ... an approximately fixed address ... )=0A= Does anyone know if there are examples of this in other major open=0A= source projects?=0A= =0A= I would be very shy of creating a notice that is not exactly what other=0A= FreeBSD files have in them. For one thing, is referring to license terms in= another=0A= copyright notice "standard practice"?=0A= =0A= I'll admit that, unless there are examples of this elsewhere in the FreeBSD= =0A= source tree (or at least in other major open source projects), I would not = be=0A= comfortable doing this.=0A= =0A= Maybe I'll try asking this question...=0A= Is there a concern that the copyright notice that is on gssd.c could be con= sidered=0A= "not valid" due to the extensive changes made to the code by me?=0A= (If the answer to that is "no", then I don't see that anything needs to be = done,=0A= since the notice includes reasonable terms as already used elsewhere in Fr= eeBSD.=0A= I have no interest in being a copyright holder for this unless the copyrig= ht can=0A= be invalidated.)=0A= Put another way, "Is there a concern that the extensive changes would allow= the=0A= copyright notice be replaced by something like a GPL ?".=0A= =0A= rick, who would rather just lease the notice alone=0A= =0A= =0A= =0A= Each contributor may append such notifications listed on the topmost part .= =0A= When a person reads such sources , she/he very easily understands its modif= ication and copyright status without any doubt .=0A= =0A= =0A= Mehmet Erol Sanliturk=0A= =0A= =0A= =0A= =0A= =0A= =0A= =0A= =0A=
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