[License-discuss] BSD license, source distributions and interpretations of "retain"

[Gervase Markham]

On 10/01/15 18:16, Michael Bradley wrote:
> Now suppose Project B’s source code is derived from Project A’s
> source code, but the maintainer of Project B wishes to use a
> different license.

What do you mean by "use"? Do you mean "use a different license for
project B when distributed as a whole", or do you mean "actively prevent
bits of project A which are in, and have been modified by, project B
from being used under the license of project A (e.g. by reincorporation
into the upstream)"?

> In an effort to avoid confusion, Project B has
> that different license text at the head of each of its source code
> files, while Project A's original license text has been moved off to
> a file bundled in Project B's source distributions, e.g.
> “licenses/ORIGINAL-PROJECTA-LICENSE.txt”.
> 
> Would that be in compliance with the “retain” language in clause #1
> of the 3-Clause BSD license?

Clause 1 and Clause 2 are differently worded; clause 2 says "in the
documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution",
and clause 1 does not. That suggests to me that clause 1 therefore is
_not_ satisfied with "in the documentation and/or other materials
provided with the distribution", if that's not the case already for the
source in question, but needs to be left on each file.

> Is there any case law to that effect or
> to the contrary? References to legal write-ups on this question (or
> similar) would be appreciated.

I can't help you with actual legal advice, I'm afraid.

Gerv