Mailing-List: contact legal-discuss-help@apache.org; run by ezmlm
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: legal-discuss@apache.org
Date: Wed, 12 Jun 2013 01:10:20 +0000 (UTC)
From: "Marvin Humphrey (JIRA)" <jira@apache.org>
To: legal-discuss@apache.org
Message-ID: <JIRA.12533496.1322768871947.101442.1370999420148@arcas>
In-Reply-To: <JIRA.12533496.1322768871947@arcas>
References: <JIRA.12533496.1322768871947@arcas>
Subject: [jira] [Commented] (LEGAL-114) License Header - Short Form?
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable


    [ https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LEGAL-114?page=3Dcom.atlassian.=
jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=3D13680=
868#comment-13680868 ]=20

Marvin Humphrey commented on LEGAL-114:
---------------------------------------

Larry,

I have always thought of you as an ace lawyer.  I will acknowledge a certai=
n
amount of impatience that the ASF has been unable to make progress on
short-form headers up till now because the issue of copyright notices keeps
being interposed; to the extent that such impatience has seeped through int=
o
my communiques, I regret it.  I am pleased that we are now moving forward.

As a contributor to the ASF, my priority is the stability of the projects I
spend my time on.  While I am not a spokesperson for my employer, by my
assessment their interests are aligned with mine -- they sponsor my work, a=
nd
as a consumer of the products that I contribute to, it would be bad for the=
m
if their investment were to be harmed.  And since most contributors and use=
rs
have similar priorities, the ASF expends a lot of energy on source code
provenance tracking through our version control systems and so on.

In contrast, preserving the right to sue for statutory damages and attorney=
's
fees over our contributions seems to offer us little.  In fact, one of the
selling points of Apache is that our liberal licensing traditions reduce th=
e
legal costs and risks for business who integrate our software.  It's not in
our interest for litigation to increase around the periphery of Apache
products -- better to settle problems quietly an amicably, as the liberal
license facilitates.

In any case, I have struggled to find references which reinforce my
interpretation of the statement that a copyright notice is *required* in or=
der
to obtain statutory damages and attorney's fees.  I haven't found language =
I
would interpret that way in chapters 4 or 5 of the statute, nor have I foun=
d
any similar language in various "pop law" books and articles out there
explaining what a valid copyright notice offers.  Instead, what everybody
mentions is that a valid notice gives you a slam dunk against the "innocent
infringement" defense, per 401(d):

    http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap4.html#401

    (d) Evidentiary Weight of Notice. =E2=80=94 If a notice of copyright in=
 the form
    and position specified by this section appears on the published copy or
    copies to which a defendant in a copyright infringement suit had access=
,
    then no weight shall be given to such a defendant's interposition of a
    defense based on innocent infringement in mitigation of actual or
    statutory damages, except as provided in the last sentence of section
    504(c)(2).

Should I have interpreted "required" to mean that it may be impractical to =
go
after statutory damages if you don't have a valid notice in your pocket to
defeat an innocent infringement defense?  (That would be consistent with th=
e
emphasis your proposed board resolution places on "innocent infringement".)

I also wonder, if we provide a collective copyright per 404(a) as a stand-i=
n
for our contributors' copyright notices, whether individual committers or t=
he
ASF itself might incur liability if someone fails to update the notice or
otherwise damage it, ultimately impairing the ability of another contributo=
r
to sue for infringement.  If we tell them to count on us, what happens when=
 we
don't come through?

               =20
> License Header - Short Form?
> ----------------------------
>
>                 Key: LEGAL-114
>                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LEGAL-114
>             Project: Legal Discuss
>          Issue Type: Question
>            Reporter: Roger Meier
>
> Hi all
> Today the license headers within files does need ~ 15 lines within a file=
.
> This needs lot of space at the top of a file, probably too much if you ha=
ve a small README file.=20
> e.g. http://svn.apache.org/viewvc/thrift/trunk/tutorial/README?view=3Dmar=
kup
> Is it possible to use a smaller header reflecting the license terms withi=
n a source or README file?
> Can we use something like that one or a shorter one?
> {noformat}
> /*
>  * Copyright (c) The Apache Software Foundation
>  * Licensed to the ASF under one or more contributor license agreements
>  * (see NOTICE file distributed with this work). ASF licenses this file t=
o you
>  * under the following license http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
>  * Software distributed is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRA=
NTIES
>  * OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
>  */
> {noformat}
> Should we mention also the License identifier (Apache-2.0) used within sp=
dx standard?
> see http://spdx.org/licenses/
> Thanks,
> Roger

--
This message is automatically generated by JIRA.
If you think it was sent incorrectly, please contact your JIRA administrato=
rs
For more information on JIRA, see: http://www.atlassian.com/software/jira

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: legal-discuss-unsubscribe@apache.org
For additional commands, e-mail: legal-discuss-help@apache.org