What to do when 3rd party BSD/MIT software doesn't include a copyright notice or license text?

[Cinly Ooi]

Dear Alistair

> My problem is that for our next version, we're planning to include a couple
> of plugins which, although they're listed on their project page as BSD or
> MIT licensed, they don't actually include any copyright notice or license
> text in the original distribution, or anywhere else that I can find. So the
> question is, what's the accepted practise in these case?

IANAL but strictly speaking, unless the author specifically said that
the file is open-source, one must assume it is not open source.
However, a lot of authors, myself included, sometimes forgot to put
the license notice on all the files we distributed. It is certainly
not good practice but it is very difficult to ensure that all files
carries the license text.

Most of the time, as long as you can show that the "project website"
or a "COPYING" file says the project is covered by AAA license, one
can assume that any file in the distribution without a specific notice
 is covered by AAA license.

> What do we need to
> do in order to comply with a license that requires we reproduce something
> that doesn't seem to be present in the original library?

IMHO, the best practice is to contact the author and ask for
permission explicitly.

Failing that,  **if there is no doubt the source code if definitely
open source **, and on the account that MIT and BSD license permits
you to modify the file, add the following sentences to all the files
saying something like

    "I got the file from http://website on <date>. On that day, the
site says the software is licensed under BSD (or MIT license)."

and include information about the project lead if you can find it.
Then make a printed copy of the project webpage showing the license
and get one of your colleague (preferably someone unconnected to the
development group) to sign that it is a true copy of the original
website. If the site is something like sourceforge.net, then one can
skip the "signing off", on the assumption that sourceforge.net will be
able to trace the license condition for the project from their
archive. [This is a BIG assumption. Might not be true and it might be
very difficult to convince sourceforge to do a trace for you.]

What you cannot do is to claim copyright on behalf of the original
author. Therefore you simply document that the copyright notice is not
there and who has the copyright to the best of your ability..

Best Regards,
Cinly