On 2017-10-14, Joël Krähemann <jkraehem...@gmail.com> wrote: > I need some authoritative answer about copyright notices to be used > for scripts and templates. The files generated by autoscan, autoconf, > automake or alike. > > I need this information in order to proceed with a submission on > savannah.gnu.org, > https://savannah.gnu.org/task/index.php?14667
Since you posted this to the Automake list I will try to answer the Automake part of this question. Note that I am not a legal expert and this is not legal advice (you won't find that on a volunteer mailing list). Automake works by combining code from your project (such as the code you write in Makefile.am) which is subject to your copyright, together with code provided by Automake (configure tests, makefile snippets, etc.) which is subject to the FSF copyright. So in a free software project, the resulting Makefile.in will need compatible free software licenses for your parts and for the FSF- copyrighted parts in order to be free. Most of the code in Automake is released under the GPL version 2 or later. But the configure tests and generated Makefile.in fragments use a simple permissive license (not the GPL), consisting of a warranty disclaimer and a notice preservation requirement. This is compatible with most, if not all, free software licenses (just preserve the notice). It should be sufficient to put your own copyright and license notices in the Automake input files. These will be copied into the Automake output along with the FSF copyright and license notices. Hope that helps, Nick
