[Bug libquadmath/119397] New: missing license file for SunPro covered sources

2025-03-20 Thread mw_triad at users dot sourceforge.net via Gcc-bugs 
https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=119397

Bug ID: 119397
   Summary: missing license file for SunPro covered sources
   Product: gcc
   Version: 14.2.1
Status: UNCONFIRMED
  Severity: normal
  Priority: P3
 Component: libquadmath
  Assignee: unassigned at gcc dot gnu.org
  Reporter: mw_triad at users dot sourceforge.net
  Target Milestone: ---

Many sources in libquadmath (and also libgo) contain the following notice:

  
  Copyright (C) 1993 by Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved.

  Developed at SunPro, a Sun Microsystems, Inc. business.
  Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this
  software is freely granted, provided that this notice
  is preserved.
  

However, there is no corresponding COPYING.SunPro. This makes it difficult for
distributions to comply with the license terms, and indeed makes it
questionable whether any distributed binary build of GCC is in compliance
without expending additional effort. While Debian does seem to expend this
effort, at least packages of Red Hat apparently do not.

There should be a COPYING.* for any and all license texts that are required to
be included in binary distributions of any components that are part of the GCC
repository.

[Bug libquadmath/119397] missing license file for SunPro covered sources

2025-03-21 Thread mw_triad at users dot sourceforge.net via Gcc-bugs 
https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=119397

--- Comment #2 from Matthew Woehlke  ---
To be clear, you are arguing that distributions of the software can entirely
omit the notice because the source code is not distributed? Has that been
tested in court, or has Sun Microsystems affirmed this interpretation?

Because that is NOT the usual understanding of what is meant by 'preserving
this notice'. In fact, if that were the interpretation, the license would be
practically irrelevant, which is not likely what Sun intended.

Debian, at least, disagrees (see /usr/share/doc/libquadmath0/copyright).

Moreover, most corporate lawyers, who typically err on the side of caution,
will also disagree. Making it more difficult for users to copy the license
notice into their own software which uses libquadmath is actively hostile to
those same users (who happen to have said corporate lawyers looking over their
shoulders). Please respect the needs of those users.