[chef] Re: Chef steps and licensing

[Hedge Hog < >]

On Thu, Mar 24, 2011 at 10:10 AM, Adam Jacob 
<
 >
 wrote:
> 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.
>

Fantastic Adam, thanks.

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



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