[chef] Re: Chef steps and licensing

[Adam Jacob < >]

On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 2:08 PM, Hedge Hog 
<
 >
 wrote:
> I've noticed some Chef step files have the opscode copyright and
> license header text, some don't.
> Given I'm refactoring some/many of these steps, I wonder what should
> be carried over in terms of licensing.
> To wit.  A step gets split into a Cucumber step file and an API file.
> The API file contains the logic - often different from the Chef logic
> (e.g uses Aruba or custom methods) - sometimes following quite closely
> the original logic.
> The step description too is sometimes the same, different or just similar.
>
> So the questions.  What do the various Authors and Opscode expect:
>  - When the API logic is influenced by Chef's
>  - When some of the step regexps are Chef's
>  - When the original step file has no license/copyright text
>
> Essentially the issue seems to be that 'portions' of a file have come
> from, been influenced by the Opscode/Chef code.

You need to put attribution about the origins of some of the code in
the NOTICE file for your app. On an individual header, you can just
add yourself as an author/copyright holder. If the original step file
is lacking the license header, please let us know, so we can add one.
Even in their absence, they are covered by the Apache 2 license.

> Yet it doesn't seem right that I can take the license/copyright text of say:
>
> # Author:: Adam Jacob 
> (<
 >)
> # Copyright:: Copyright (c) 2008 Opscode, Inc.
> # License:: Apache License, Version 2.0
> #
> etc
>
> and change it to arbitrarily assert that only portions of the file are
> now Authored by Adam Jacob copyright by Opscode.
>
> # Portions Authored:: Adam Jacob 
> (<
 >)
> # Portions Copyright:: Copyright (c) 2008 Opscode, Inc.
> # License:: Apache License, Version 2.0
> #
> etc

You can absolutely put some text in the header file saying that your
new work is based on the old work, and the original header is below.

> That is, it seem I need to get their agreement.   And then the
> agreement of anyone else whose authorship/copyright I come across?
> Correct?

You can re-use the work without having to get the agreement of the
original authors, as long as you're not going to be changing the
licensing terms at all (ie: you release the final derived work as
Apache 2) *and* you don't modify the fact that the code you are
incorporating remains copyrighted by the original authors.

The Apache License grants these rights to those who receive a copy of
the software.

Happy to help,
Adam

-- 
Opscode, Inc.
Adam Jacob, Chief Product Officer
T: (206) 619-7151 E: