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390 changes: 365 additions & 25 deletions LICENSE
@@ -1,25 +1,365 @@
Copyright (c) 2007-2015, Evan Phoenix and contributors
All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

* Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this
list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
* Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice
this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation
and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
* Neither the name of Rubinius nor the names of its contributors
may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS"
AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR
SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER
CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY,
OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE
OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
Copyright (c) 2016, the Rubinius project.

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@yorickpeterse

yorickpeterse Jan 2, 2016

Contributor

While I'm no lawyer I think it may be better to use "Rubinius, Inc" here instead of just "the Rubinius project" as the former is a more well defined entity. I suspect "the Rubinius project" may be interpreted as "everybody who ever worked on it", and I'm not sure if we want to hand out copyrights to everybody.

Alternatively we'd have to define what "the Rubinius project" actually means.

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brixen Jan 3, 2016

Author Member

Hmm, yes, for the time being, I agree. Ultimately, Rubinius itself may have a legal distinction independent of Rubinius, Inc, but that hasn't been formulated yet.

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@jemc

jemc Jan 3, 2016

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Not a lawyer either, but I believe (perhaps falsely) that:

  1. The language here doesn't "hand out copyrights to everybody". In fact, because there was no copyright assignment as part of the contribution process, all of the contributors do in fact hold some copyright already, no matter what language you decide to use here.
  2. Because copyright is held by all contributors, you need consent from all contributors to change the license. For whatever it's worth, I give my consent to change the license to the MPLv2 (and I think it's a great license for a project like this), but traditionally I've seen this handled by making an issue ticket that pings all of the contributors to get their consent. This can take some time, but it's worth covering all the bases here, and I think it would be appropriate.

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brixen Jan 3, 2016

Author Member

Also, not a lawyer, but my understanding is 1. contributors hold their copyright to their specific work, 2. notwithstanding any individual's copyright, the combined work is also copyrightable, and if anything, that's what the notice refers to.

Any particular contributor who disagrees with MPL-2.0 can request their specific, verifiable contributions be removed and we'll rewrite those parts.

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jemc Jan 3, 2016

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Still not a lawyer, but okay by me. 👍

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@hintjens

hintjens Jan 3, 2016

Apologies for joining this conversation. There are a few issues with this change which put Rubinius into a dangerous state, legally speaking. You have exposed yourself to potential liability. IANAL so this is based on some decades of copyright experience.

Relicensing to MPLv2 is a fine idea per-se, yet you need to go about it the right way. Removing the BSD text and replacing it with MPLv2 text is not the right way.

Let me break this down:

  • You have no contributor agreement, so every patch is owned by its contributor. You can argue that trivial patches are excluded from this. Probably not worth it though.
  • The original patches were made to a BSD project and we can assume they were licensed under BSD. (There is a legal gray area here since patches on a BSD/MIT/X11 project are not automatically licensed the same way. Still, it is a reasonable assumption to make.)
  • It's worth noting that one does not "hand out copyrights." The author of a patch owns the copyright on that patch. By submitting it they (one assumes) grant the project a license to use and distribute the patch. One advantage of MPLv2 and other share-alike licenses is they remove this assumption.
  • To fully re-license the project you MUST contact every single contributor, and get their approval. In effect they re-license their contributions, allowing you to re-license the whole project. We've done this in cases. It can be a lot of work (months) if you have many contributors. During that process you must either freeze new patches, or ensure they are licensed under both old and new license.
  • You can absolutely NOT argue that any contributor who "disagrees" must notify you. This is not how it works. Copyright exists on all creative works by default, under international law, and expires only after the full period. If you distribute a work without valid license (as you are doing currently), you are violating copyright law.
  • You can avoid that work by wrapping the BSD license in an MPLv2 license. This means to create a derived product that has the MPLv2 license, and which includes BSD code. This is how any proprietary product includes BSD code.
  • In that case, you MUST continue to respect the original BSD license, otherwise your derived work is illegal and you MAY NOT distribute it. (If you do, any original contributor can sue you, if they cared, and probably win.)
  • The BSD license explicitly forbids removal of the copyright statements and the license text. You have removed these (from LICENSE text, as they were not in the source files). This is not legally safe.
  • The simplest solution is to leave the original copyright statements, and the BSD text, in LICENSE, then add the MPLv2 statement and other copyrights ahead of that.
  • Note that copyrights can only be claimed by individuals or legal entities. Projects cannot claim copyrights (or any other property for that matter) since they will have no standing in a court.

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brixen Jan 3, 2016

Author Member

@hintjens thanks for weighing in, your extensive experience is much appreciated. It wasn't clear to me that the BSD text needed to be retained. I'll re-add it.

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hintjens Jan 3, 2016

@brixen no problem. Good luck.

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@yorickpeterse

yorickpeterse Jan 3, 2016

Contributor

@brixen For good measurement we should probably Email all contributors and ask them to reply to an issue whether they're OK with this or not. I can set this up if needed. For future references it may be wiser to discuss these things first before changing them (though I have nothing against the MPL 2.0).

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brixen Jan 3, 2016

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@hintjens the main thing I wanted to clarify is that going forward, new contributions are licensed under MPL-2.0. I didn't want there to be confusion about whether those were BSD or MPL-2.0. Unsure whether there's an effective way to do that.

Many thanks for all your extensive work on fixing the horribly broken copyright system.

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brixen Jan 3, 2016

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@hintjens er, trying to fix; it's hopeless. :)

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brixen Jan 3, 2016

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@yorickpeterse we're not changing the license for any existing contribution, that wasn't the intent. Prior contributions don't dictate the license for future contributions. Any prior contributions continue to be licensed exactly as they were.

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yorickpeterse Jan 3, 2016

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@brixen In that case the license file should explicitly state that the BSD license applies to old code only, right now it looks like we're dual licensing both past and future changes.

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brixen Jan 3, 2016

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@yorickpeterse that's what this and this are intended to say. The README files are also explicit.

Feel free to update with clarifying language if you can.

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yorickpeterse Jan 3, 2016

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I'll add an extra note to the LICENSE, I feel the current setup is too ambiguous.

Copyright (c) 2007-2015, Evan Phoenix and contributors.

Mozilla Public License, version 2.0

1. Definitions

1.1. "Contributor"

means each individual or legal entity that creates, contributes to the
creation of, or owns Covered Software.

1.2. "Contributor Version"

means the combination of the Contributions of others (if any) used by a
Contributor and that particular Contributor's Contribution.

1.3. "Contribution"

means Covered Software of a particular Contributor.

1.4. "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.

1.5. "Incompatible With Secondary Licenses"
means

a. that the initial Contributor has attached the notice described in
Exhibit B to the Covered Software; or

b. that the Covered Software was made available under the terms of
version 1.1 or earlier of the License, but not also under the terms of
a Secondary License.

1.6. "Executable Form"

means any form of the work other than Source Code Form.

1.7. "Larger Work"

means a work that combines Covered Software with other material, in a
separate file or files, that is not Covered Software.

1.8. "License"

means this document.

1.9. "Licensable"

means having the right to grant, to the maximum extent possible, whether
at the time of the initial grant or subsequently, any and all of the
rights conveyed by this License.

1.10. "Modifications"

means any of the following:

a. any file in Source Code Form that results from an addition to,
deletion from, or modification of the contents of Covered Software; or

b. any new file in Source Code Form that contains any Covered Software.

1.11. "Patent Claims" of a Contributor

means any patent claim(s), including without limitation, method,
process, and apparatus claims, in any patent Licensable by such
Contributor that would be infringed, but for the grant of the License,
by the making, using, selling, offering for sale, having made, import,
or transfer of either its Contributions or its Contributor Version.

1.12. "Secondary License"

means either the GNU General Public License, Version 2.0, the GNU Lesser
General Public License, Version 2.1, the GNU Affero General Public
License, Version 3.0, or any later versions of those licenses.

1.13. "Source Code Form"

means the form of the work preferred for making modifications.

1.14. "You" (or "Your")

means an individual or a legal entity exercising rights under this
License. For legal entities, "You" includes any entity that controls, is
controlled by, or is under common control with You. For purposes of this
definition, "control" means (a) the power, direct or indirect, to cause
the direction or management of such entity, whether by contract or
otherwise, or (b) ownership of more than fifty percent (50%) of the
outstanding shares or beneficial ownership of such entity.


2. License Grants and Conditions

2.1. Grants

Each Contributor hereby grants You a world-wide, royalty-free,
non-exclusive license:

a. under intellectual property rights (other than patent or trademark)
Licensable by such Contributor to use, reproduce, make available,
modify, display, perform, distribute, and otherwise exploit its
Contributions, either on an unmodified basis, with Modifications, or
as part of a Larger Work; and

b. under Patent Claims of such Contributor to make, use, sell, offer for
sale, have made, import, and otherwise transfer either its
Contributions or its Contributor Version.

2.2. Effective Date

The licenses granted in Section 2.1 with respect to any Contribution
become effective for each Contribution on the date the Contributor first
distributes such Contribution.

2.3. Limitations on Grant Scope

The licenses granted in this Section 2 are the only rights granted under
this License. No additional rights or licenses will be implied from the
distribution or licensing of Covered Software under this License.
Notwithstanding Section 2.1(b) above, no patent license is granted by a
Contributor:

a. for any code that a Contributor has removed from Covered Software; or

b. for infringements caused by: (i) Your and any other third party's
modifications of Covered Software, or (ii) the combination of its
Contributions with other software (except as part of its Contributor
Version); or

c. under Patent Claims infringed by Covered Software in the absence of
its Contributions.

This License does not grant any rights in the trademarks, service marks,
or logos of any Contributor (except as may be necessary to comply with
the notice requirements in Section 3.4).

2.4. Subsequent Licenses

No Contributor makes additional grants as a result of Your choice to
distribute the Covered Software under a subsequent version of this
License (see Section 10.2) or under the terms of a Secondary License (if
permitted under the terms of Section 3.3).

2.5. Representation

Each Contributor represents that the Contributor believes its
Contributions are its original creation(s) or it has sufficient rights to
grant the rights to its Contributions conveyed by this License.

2.6. Fair Use

This License is not intended to limit any rights You have under
applicable copyright doctrines of fair use, fair dealing, or other
equivalents.

2.7. Conditions

Sections 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, and 3.4 are conditions of the licenses granted in
Section 2.1.


3. Responsibilities

3.1. Distribution of Source Form

All distribution of Covered Software in Source Code Form, including any
Modifications that You create or to which You contribute, must be under
the terms of this License. You must inform recipients that the Source
Code Form of the Covered Software is governed by the terms of this
License, and how they can obtain a copy of this License. You may not
attempt to alter or restrict the recipients' rights in the Source Code
Form.

3.2. Distribution of Executable Form

If You distribute Covered Software in Executable Form then:

a. such Covered Software must also be made available in Source Code Form,
as described in Section 3.1, and You must inform recipients of the
Executable Form how they can obtain a copy of such Source Code Form by
reasonable means in a timely manner, at a charge no more than the cost
of distribution to the recipient; and

b. You may distribute such Executable Form under the terms of this
License, or sublicense it under different terms, provided that the
license for the Executable Form does not attempt to limit or alter the
recipients' rights in the Source Code Form under this License.

3.3. Distribution of a Larger Work

You may create and distribute a Larger Work under terms of Your choice,
provided that You also comply with the requirements of this License for
the Covered Software. If the Larger Work is a combination of Covered
Software with a work governed by one or more Secondary Licenses, and the
Covered Software is not Incompatible With Secondary Licenses, this
License permits You to additionally distribute such Covered Software
under the terms of such Secondary License(s), so that the recipient of
the Larger Work may, at their option, further distribute the Covered
Software under the terms of either this License or such Secondary
License(s).

3.4. Notices

You may not remove or alter the substance of any license notices
(including copyright notices, patent notices, disclaimers of warranty, or
limitations of liability) contained within the Source Code Form of the
Covered Software, except that You may alter any license notices to the
extent required to remedy known factual inaccuracies.

3.5. Application of Additional Terms

You may choose to offer, and to charge a fee for, warranty, support,
indemnity or liability obligations to one or more recipients of Covered
Software. However, You may do so only on Your own behalf, and not on
behalf of any Contributor. You must make it absolutely clear that any
such warranty, support, indemnity, or liability obligation is offered by
You alone, and You hereby agree to indemnify every Contributor for any
liability incurred by such Contributor as a result of warranty, support,
indemnity or liability terms You offer. You may include additional
disclaimers of warranty and limitations of liability specific to any
jurisdiction.

4. Inability to Comply Due to Statute or Regulation

If it is impossible for You to comply with any of the terms of this License
with respect to some or all of the Covered Software due to statute,
judicial order, or regulation then You must: (a) comply with the terms of
this License to the maximum extent possible; and (b) describe the
limitations and the code they affect. Such description must be placed in a
text file included with all distributions of the Covered Software under
this License. Except to the extent prohibited by statute or regulation,
such description must be sufficiently detailed for a recipient of ordinary
skill to be able to understand it.

5. Termination

5.1. The rights granted under this License will terminate automatically if You
fail to comply with any of its terms. However, if You become compliant,
then the rights granted under this License from a particular Contributor
are reinstated (a) provisionally, unless and until such Contributor
explicitly and finally terminates Your grants, and (b) on an ongoing
basis, if such Contributor fails to notify You of the non-compliance by
some reasonable means prior to 60 days after You have come back into
compliance. Moreover, Your grants from a particular Contributor are
reinstated on an ongoing basis if such Contributor notifies You of the
non-compliance by some reasonable means, this is the first time You have
received notice of non-compliance with this License from such
Contributor, and You become compliant prior to 30 days after Your receipt
of the notice.

5.2. If You initiate litigation against any entity by asserting a patent
infringement claim (excluding declaratory judgment actions,
counter-claims, and cross-claims) alleging that a Contributor Version
directly or indirectly infringes any patent, then the rights granted to
You by any and all Contributors for the Covered Software under Section
2.1 of this License shall terminate.

5.3. In the event of termination under Sections 5.1 or 5.2 above, all end user
license agreements (excluding distributors and resellers) which have been
validly granted by You or Your distributors under this License prior to
termination shall survive termination.

6. Disclaimer of Warranty

Covered Software is provided under this License on an "as is" basis,
without warranty of any kind, either expressed, implied, or statutory,
including, without limitation, warranties that the Covered Software is free
of defects, merchantable, fit for a particular purpose or non-infringing.
The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the Covered Software
is with You. Should any Covered Software prove defective in any respect,
You (not any Contributor) assume the cost of any necessary servicing,
repair, or correction. This disclaimer of warranty constitutes an essential
part of this License. No use of any Covered Software is authorized under
this License except under this disclaimer.

7. Limitation of Liability

Under no circumstances and under no legal theory, whether tort (including
negligence), contract, or otherwise, shall any Contributor, or anyone who
distributes Covered Software as permitted above, be liable to You for any
direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages of any
character including, without limitation, damages for lost profits, loss of
goodwill, work stoppage, computer failure or malfunction, or any and all
other commercial damages or losses, even if such party shall have been
informed of the possibility of such damages. This limitation of liability
shall not apply to liability for death or personal injury resulting from
such party's negligence to the extent applicable law prohibits such
limitation. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of
incidental or consequential damages, so this exclusion and limitation may
not apply to You.

8. Litigation

Any litigation relating to this License may be brought only in the courts
of a jurisdiction where the defendant maintains its principal place of
business and such litigation shall be governed by laws of that
jurisdiction, without reference to its conflict-of-law provisions. Nothing
in this Section shall prevent a party's ability to bring cross-claims or
counter-claims.

9. Miscellaneous

This License represents the complete agreement concerning the subject
matter hereof. If any provision of this License is held to be
unenforceable, such provision shall be reformed only to the extent
necessary to make it enforceable. Any law or regulation which provides that
the language of a contract shall be construed against the drafter shall not
be used to construe this License against a Contributor.


10. Versions of the License

10.1. New Versions

Mozilla Foundation is the license steward. Except as provided in Section
10.3, no one other than the license steward has the right to modify or
publish new versions of this License. Each version will be given a
distinguishing version number.

10.2. Effect of New Versions

You may distribute the Covered Software under the terms of the version
of the License under which You originally received the Covered Software,
or under the terms of any subsequent version published by the license
steward.

10.3. Modified Versions

If you create software not governed by this License, and you want to
create a new license for such software, you may create and use a
modified version of this License if you rename the license and remove
any references to the name of the license steward (except to note that
such modified license differs from this License).

10.4. Distributing Source Code Form that is Incompatible With Secondary
Licenses If You choose to distribute Source Code Form that is
Incompatible With Secondary Licenses under the terms of this version of
the License, the notice described in Exhibit B of this License must be
attached.

Exhibit A - Source Code Form License Notice

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
http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.

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.

You may add additional accurate notices of copyright ownership.

Exhibit B - "Incompatible With Secondary Licenses" Notice

This Source Code Form is "Incompatible
With Secondary Licenses", as defined by
the Mozilla Public License, v. 2.0.

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