Why not? If we ensure that every user of the gnulib CVS understands it,
If someone comes across a file for whatever reason (eg, casually browsing savannah cvs), and they see a license statement in that file, it is obvious that they will assume that that is the license of the file. When a license is not stated, then there can be reasons/cases to look elsewhere, but when a license is stated, then it would be unprecedented to think "that is not really the license". I doubt there is any legal justification for it either, as it seems to go against the whole principle of copyright. I can make any statement I wish, eg, "You have to pay me $1000000 to download GNU Emacs", or, as in this case, "File xxx is under the LGPL", but that doesn't make it legally meaningful. I can give you a 1-dollar bill A different scenario. Gnulib is open to the public under copyright. It is not a contractual agreement between two parties. But I agree that it can be confusing. I'm glad. the --symlink option, in the coreutils situation, will copy more files and symlink less files. Is there a problem with having the LGPL'd files in coreutils? Does it make any practical difference? karl