Re: [patch] copyright notice correction on libiberty/make-relative-prefix.c (current notice grants no rights)

[Joe Buck <jbuck at synopsys dot com>]

On Tue, May 27, 2003 at 02:08:24PM -0400, Nathanael Nerode wrote:
> DJ Delorie wrote:
> > Fixing the copyright "mess" is a good goal, but I suspect it will be a
> > long and messy change.  I think the right starting point is to write
> > up a summary of the problem and proposed changes,
> I'll do that. :-)  At least, I'll make drafts and circulate them for 
> improvement until we reach consensus.
> 
> > and find out who at
> > the FSF is the right person to discuss this with.
> I'm not sure I'm up to this. :-(

If we need to change any licenses, the GCC steering committee list
is the right forum; RMS is a member.  That is, the way we work this is
that the SC asks RMS for permission to change the licenses and RMS
agrees or disagrees.  There are several cases:

a) files with no copyright notices, but known to belong to the FSF
   (this would include anything first developed at Cygnus, because
   of the blanket assignment).  These are generally easy cases, as
   RMS will immediately agree to choose the same license as the library
   they belong to.

b) requests to loosen licenses.  RMS will want a good justification,
   and may think for a while about it

c) files that the FSF doesn't own; we and RMS have no authority to
   change licenses.

I could bring it up, but I would need a precise indication of which files
need to change and what the recommendation is.
 
> > After we agree on a
> > course of action, we'll probably have to research each and every file
> > to make sure we do the right thing.
> That I can also do some of.

Good.