Hi all
The REUSE FAQ states that some people "miss the long legal blurbs at the
tops of files, miss the |COPYING|/|LICENSE| file in the root of the
repository, think that |.license| files clutter the directory, or find
it very strange that even insignificant non-code files get licensing
headers. The different-ness of REUSE can seem peculiar in that way."
I definitely don't miss those blurbs. In that way, REUSE automation is
an excellent thing.
However, I wonder if this might cause people to fail to apply the MPL
2.0 license. Section 1.4 of the MPL 2.0 license[2] states that
"Covered Software" "means Source Code Form to which the initial
Contributor has attached the notice in Exhibit A, the Executable Form of
such Source Code Form, and Modifications of such Source Code Form, in
each case including portions thereof."
Exhibit A is this statement: "This Source Code Form is subject to the
terms of the Mozilla Public License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was
not distributed with this file, You can obtain one at
https://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/."
Normally, this is interpreted as meaning that this statement should be
included in headers, however "if it is not possible or desirable to put
the notice in a particular file, then You may include the notice in a
location (such as a LICENSE file in a relevant directory) where a
recipient would be likely to look for such a notice".
If you attach the SPDX headers indicating "MPL 2.0", however, this
notice appears exactly NOWHERE in the repository except in the license
file itself, where it only serves the purpose of specifying the
requirement and thus cannot be said to be attached to each file in the
repository. There's a question on StackExchange discussing a similar
issue.[3]
The question is if this particular requirement in MPL 2.0, that actively
*demands* the inclusion of a specific text in order to apply, means
that REUSE's current standard check is insufficient for the MPL and that
the MPL Exhibit A text should be included somewhere? (Like, in a file
called ".reuse/MPL2.0-Exhibit-A.txt".
Best,
Carsten
[1]: https://reuse.software/faq/#tradition
[2]: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/MPL/2.0/
[3]:
https://opensource.stackexchange.com/questions/7736/is-question-25-from-mpl…