[Nfd-dev] License boilerplate for code imported from NFD to ndn-cxx

[Davide Pesavento]

On Sun, Oct 5, 2014 at 6:20 PM, Junxiao Shi
<shijunxiao at email.arizona.edu> wrote:
> Dear folks
>
> Sometimes, code needs to be imported from NFD to ndn-cxx, for functional and
> technical reasons.
>
> Strictly speaking, NFD code cannot be imported to ndn-cxx directly.
> NFD is GPL3; ndn-cxx is LGPL3.
> LGPL3 code cannot contain GPL3 code.
>
> The guideline given in ndn-cxx README-dev.md is to include a LGPL3 license
> boilerplate for all contributions.

I'm assuming that guideline refers only to new code (it's the only way
in which it can make sense). In this case you're not the sole author
of the code that you committed, therefore the guideline does not
apply.

> Davide is disagreeing with this practice in a code review.

I don't disagree with it in general. I disagree with what you did in
change #1288.

IANAL, but applying this "practice" in this case is wrong and
constitutes a gross violation of copyright law, for two reasons.

1. You are relicensing code from GPL to LGPL. This requires explicit
approval from every copyright holder (i.e. author) of the code that is
being relicensed.

2. You dropped all copyright holders except "The Regents of University
of California". I believe this is a violation of the GPLv3.

Best,
Davide