Re: [git-multimail] License unknown (#1)

From: Michael Haggerty <mhagger@alum.mit.edu>
Date: Jan 27, 2013, 18:52 UTC
Message-ID: <5105778A.1040401@alum.mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <mhagger/git-multimail/issues/1/12754195@github.com>

I have a question about the license of contrib/hooks/post-commit-email.
 I had assumed that since it is in the git project, which is GPLv2, and
since it contains no contrary information, it would by implication also
fall under GPLv2.  But the file itself contains no explicit license
information, and it is not clear to me that the "signed-off-by" line
implies a particular license, either.  (The signed-off-by *does* seem to
imply that the source code is under some kind of open source license,
but not which one.)

If somebody can explain what license the code is under and how they come to that conclusion, I would be very grateful.

And if Andy Parkins (the original author) is listening, please indicate whether you had any intent *other* than GPLv2.

For anybody who is interested, the file was first committed in 4557e0de5b and has been modified by several authors since then.

Given the pretty clear open-sourciness of the script, I don't think this has to be made into a big issue. But it would be nice to state the license explicitly for future users' information.

Thanks, Michael

On 01/27/2013 02:38 PM, Michiel Holtkamp wrote:

Show 6 quoted lines

> Actually, I'm not sure that it is GPLv2 for the original script. The
> COPYING file in the main project declares the project as GPLv2, but it
> also says that people contributing should make their preferences (for
> licensing) known. Maybe we can assume it's GPLv2, (as the original
> writer might have assumed it was GPLv2), but it's not explicitly stated
> so I'm not sure (IANAL).

-- 
Michael Haggerty
mhagger@alum.mit.edu
http://softwareswirl.blogspot.com/