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Legal Team/Minutes/2017-11-09
Attendees
- Kate Stewart
- Bradley Kuhn
- Bradlee Edmondson
- Alexios
- John Sullivan
- Dennis Clark
- Paul Madick
- Steve Winslow
- Mike Dolan
- Trevor King
- Gary O’Neall
- Alan Tse
- Jilayne
Agenda
1) revisit the only/or later/? topic - see discussions from mailing list: https://lists.spdx.org/pipermail/spdx-legal/2017-November/thread.html The notes below includes key points, but not all the discussion:
- John: issue with plain identifiers is if there is just a copy of license with no statement, then there’s statement in license itself that any version of GPL can be used; the copy of a version does not specify the version by itself. in response to Jilayne’s comparison to the license w/binary blob example (where the license would prevail with no other info needed in the “files”) - GPL is more specific, so not a comparison
- tension in how license list is used and different fields in spec - info in file v. conclusion; and outside an SPDX document - need to address both/all
- Trevor proposed enhancement to XML to flag error if use plain identifier (e.g., GPL0-2.0) which might only apply to conclusion fields
- could also add/make NOASSERTION as something that can be used as part of license list/expressions (not just within the spec/SPDX docs) - this would be helpful for more than this scenario.
- current proposal is easier for tooling and also leaves room for extensibility or other operators (discussion of how proxy clause would work, for example)
Net sum: two possible proposals, both of which accommodate 3 options:
- this version only
- this or any later version
- I found the license text (of a version) only and no other information
“Gary’s proposal” (same one as we’ve been talking about since beginning of this discussion):
- keep plain identifiers on license list (remove the word “only” in full name); add “only” operator; provide documentation that the plain identifier is meant to be used in the instance to show you found the text of that license
“Paul’s alternative proposal: provide 3 “hard-coded” options on the license list as follows:
- change current GPL-2.0 to GPL-2.0-only
- add GPL-2.0-or-later
- add GPL-2.0-text-alone (or something along those lines) to be used in the instance to show you found the text of that license)
Note: the use of people’s names is only to attribute who initiated the idea and aide in referring to the proposals :)
Note: next call falls on Thanksgiving, so we will use tech team’s call time on Tuesday, Nov to carry on discuss so too much time does not pass!
