taskManeage - Tasks: task #16374, Using LICENSE instead of COPYING

 
 

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task #16374: Using LICENSE instead of COPYING

Submitter:  Mohammad Akhlaghi <makhlaghi>
Submitted:  Mon 05 Jun 2023 04:22:45 PM UTC
   
 
Should Start On:  Sun 04 Jun 2023 11:00:00 PM UTC Should be Finished on:  Sun 04 Jun 2023 11:00:00 PM UTC
Category:  Discussion Priority:  5 - Normal
Status:  Done Privacy:  Public
Assigned to:  makhlaghi Percent Complete:  100%
Open/Closed:  Closed Effort:  0.00

Tue 06 Jun 2023 03:30:59 PM UTC, comment #3: 

Another reply from John Darrington:


I think that COPYING has to be a better choice than LICENSE for a number of reasons.

* A licence is a legal concept.  Most users of software are not lawyers, so will not
  understand what it means.  Many *think* they understand it, but in most cases it is
  a serious misunderstanding.  Moreover, we don't want users to dwell on the juristic
  matters.  We just want them to be aware of what they are permitted to do.

* Whilst it is true that the GPL is about more than copying - to be precise, it is about
  copying, modification, distribution and combinations of those three - these are all
  variations on the general theme of copying.

* The GNU coding standards have for many years said that packages should put the GPL
  in a file named COPYING.

* I think there are many more people are going to want to copy GNU software than are who
  are going to want to (sub)license it (which is not allowed).

* A licence is simply something which permits what would otherwise be illegal. It
  could refer to many things.  For example a copyright licence, a patent licence,
  a television licence, a driving licence ...   Naming the file COPYING, on the other
  hand, is much more specific.  She immediately knows this file contains matters relating
  to copying the software.  LICENSE on the other hand could mean many different things
  For example in GNU Radio it might be assumed to be about licensing to communicate on
  various radio frequencies.

* COPYING has been the convention for so long that people are used to it now.

* LICENSE is a verb.  The correct spelling of the noun would be LICENCE.


Mohammad Akhlaghi <makhlaghi>
Group administrator
Mon 05 Jun 2023 06:42:23 PM UTC, comment #2: 

Here is a more complete reply from Bruno Haible:


There are many software licenses. Some for Free Software, some for
proprietary software (e.g. [1]). All of them can be stored in a file named
"LICENSE".

What sets the Free Software licenses apart from the rest, is that they
allow copying (and much more — but copying is the first freedom).

When we call the file 'COPYING', we are emphasizing that our software is
Free Software. It's worth doing that, no?

[1] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sharedsource/


Mohammad Akhlaghi <makhlaghi>
Group administrator
Mon 05 Jun 2023 04:32:26 PM UTC, comment #1: 

I just received a reply from Alfred M. Szmidt (not yet updated on the mailing list webpage)


Best practices are different between projects, in the GNU project we
consider it best practice to call it COPYING, this has been the
standard name for the license file for several decades, it would only
be confusing to add another name.


So for GNU, this is primarily a historical reason, which is understandable!

We hope to submit Maneage as a GNU package in the future, so it makes sense to keep the 'COPYING' name, and I am closing this task (although we can continue the discussion if there is any note you would like to make).

Mohammad Akhlaghi <makhlaghi>
Group administrator
Mon 05 Jun 2023 04:22:45 PM UTC, original submission:  

[This task was originally defined [1] in Gitlab as a merge request by Juan Julián Merelo Guervós.]

The fact that "A license is much more than copying rights, and the usual best practice is to call it that way", is a good point! The main reason we done this was to follow the GNU Coding Standards and the GNU guide on using GNU license [2].

So I just sent a query to 'bug-standards@gnu.org' inquiring about the usage of 'LICENSE' instead of 'COPYING' to get their feedback. It should show up on their mailing list archives after they approve it (for "2023-06").

Until they answer, please feel free to share your thoughts about the issue here.

[1] https://gitlab.com/maneage/project/-/merge_requests/5
[2] https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-howto.html
[3] https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-standards/




P.S. Email inquiry submitted to 'bug-standards@gnu.org':



-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: GPL is more than copying conditions
Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2023 17:51:56 +0200
To: bug-standards@gnu.org

Dear GNU Coding Standards maintainers,

This issue was recently brought up by Juan Julián Merelo Guervós in the "Maneage" project [1] that I am maintaining (see [2]).

In Maneage, following the GNU Coding Standards and the "How to use GNU Licenses" guide [3], we have a 'COPYING' file for the full text of the GNU GPL v3+. In [2] Juan raised the following point:

"A license is much more than copying rights, and the usual best practice is to call it that way [LICENSE]"

Therefore, his pull request has changed the file name from 'COPYING' to 'LICENSE' to be a more clear and unambiguous name.

I wanted to consult you about this: why not recommend to use the less ambiguous 'LICENSE' (as well as 'COPYING' for historical reasons)?

Thank you very much,
Mohammad

[1] https://maneage.org
[2] https://gitlab.com/maneage/project/-/merge_requests/5/diffs?commit_id=c0e85530d35ba
[3] https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-howto.html


Mohammad Akhlaghi <makhlaghi>
Group administrator

 

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