[python-uk] copyright info in source

Doug Winter doug.winter at isotoma.com
Tue Sep 10 15:37:51 CEST 2013


On 10/09/13 13:33, Jonathan Hartley wrote:
> Thanks Doug.
>
> I'd be interested if you wanted to expand on why you like that 
> license. Is it anything other than what I could glean from a layman's 
> reading of the text?

It's basically the 3-clause MIT license, but legally much more 
watertight and (importantly) with support for patents.

> That Apache license page is puzzling to me, no doubt due to my 
> inexperience in such matters.
>
> Why does the boilerplate attached to every file contain a partial, 
> reworded version of clause 7 of the license, but not of any other 
> clauses? Why is this copy reworded? Are the rewordings legally 
> significant? If so, what do the differences mean, if not, why are they 
> there? Presumably only a lawyer is qualified to answer.

I am not a lawyer but I think I can answer.

Much of the wording of clause 7 is explicitly included because the 
disclaimer of warranty is the most important thing in there to YOU. 
Anyone who looks at this software will know there is no warranty, and 
won't be able to claim "oh the apache website was down" or something.   
Everything else is pretty much a grant to them, so no need to be so 
obvious about it.

The rewording is because the original clause contains Definitions With 
Initial Capitals Which Are A Part Of A Contract. Without the defined 
terms earlier on it makes no sense.

It also misses out the including, without limitation, bits. That is belt 
and braces anyhow, so maybe they just wanted to be as terse as possible 
in the file header.

> Presumably the  ':::text' boilerplate prefix just an erroneous markup 
> snafu?

yeah looks like it.


Cheers,

Doug.


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