[REUSE] Handle copyright and licensing of snippets

[Max Mehl]

~ nicolas1.toussaint at orange.com [2020-03-13 09:50 +0100]:
>  > REUSE-Snippet-* vs SPDX-Snippet*
> Definitely in favor of aligning with SPDX standard, for standardization 
> reasons,
>   but also to facilitate automatic detection.
> BUT, they are useless without corresponding END tags
>   -> should we see with SPDX team to add them ?

Yes, that would be another set of questions/improvements (in addition to
potential tags for a repurposed LICENSE or a LICENSE.reuse file) to
discuss with them.

>  > SPDX-License-Identifier and SPDX-SnippetLicenseConcluded are quite 
>  > different from each other,
>  > so one more pattern of tags to learn for adopters.
> We can still search for "SPDX-License-Identifier" in the first 4kb,
>   then 'SPDX-Snippet*' in the rest of the files.

I was rather thinking about the human problem. Right now, the amount of
tags necessary to edit files the REUSE way is limited
(SPDX-License-Identifier, SPDX-FileCopyrightText and/or Copyright). With
the differently worded SPDX-Snippet* tags we would increase the
likelihood of mistakes and confusion.

> And an open question: should we add the possbility to also specify a 
> source URL along
>   license and copyright information to easily trace back the snippet to 
> the source ?

SPDX theoretically allows for comments on snippets [^1], perhaps that
could be used for your purpose. For REUSE, this most likely would not
become a requirement as it is not directly relevant for the reusability
of a file in terms of licensing and copyright.

Best,
Max


[^1]: https://github.com/spdx/spdx-spec/blob/development/v2.2/chapters/5-snippet-information.md

-- 
Max Mehl - Programme Manager - Free Software Foundation Europe
Contact and information: https://fsfe.org/about/mehl | @mxmehl
Become a supporter of software freedom:  https://fsfe.org/join
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