Fwd: Help on relicensing derived code

[Henrique Almeida]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Henrique Almeida <hdante at gmail.com>
Date: 2009/7/13
Subject: Re: Help on relicensing derived code
To: "Carlos A. M. dos Santos" <unixmania at gmail.com>


2009/7/13 Carlos A. M. dos Santos <unixmania at gmail.com>:
> On Sun, Jul 12, 2009 at 4:20 PM, Henrique Almeida<hdante at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>  I need to write an "errno.h" with constant values used by the FreeBSD
>> kernel. My project uses exclusively the 2 clause BSD license. I
>> expected to copy those values from FreeBSD errno.h. However, FreeBSD
>> errno.h has 3 clauses.[...]
>
> Do you have any particular reason to refuse the current 3-clause license?

 Yes, I've decided to choose uniform licensing for the whole project.
I think it will be better for users this way. I'll try to stick with
that unless completelly impossible.

>
>>[...] I'm a total newbie in licensing procedures so,
>> it's not clear what to do.
>>
>>  - Relicense the code as a 2 license BSD, because it's a derived work
>> (prefered choice)
>
> You can't do that. The copyright owners are The Regents of the
> University of California and UNIX System Laboratories (now Novell).
> Changing the license without their permission would be legally
> considered theft.

 Notice that I won't relicense the original code. I only need to
relicense the derived work (my own version of errno.h), as described
in the copyright law section of the following link:

 http://www.openbsd.org/policy.html

 Maybe we could find a lawyer to explain that. :-/

>
>>  - If the above is not allowed, ask the original authors of errno.h to
>> provide an alternative 2 clause BSD license.
>
> You must ask the copyright owners, UC and Novell. I don't believe you
> will have success any time soon, however.
>
>>  Which choice is legally correct ?
>
> The second one, but I strongly advise you to adopt the file as is. The
> license is already fairly liberal.

 Please answer again, given the comment above. :-) I still have hope I
can use a 2 clause license.

>
> --
> My preferred quotation of Robert Louis Stevenson is "You cannot
> make an omelette without breaking eggs". Not because I like the
> omelettes, but because I like the sound of eggs being broken.
>



--
 Henrique Dante de Almeida
 hdante at gmail.com



-- 
 Henrique Dante de Almeida
 hdante at gmail.com