[License-discuss] BSD 3-clause and copyright notices

[Gervase Markham]

On 01/10/15 14:27, Zluty Sysel wrote:
> distributed) product. Given this, let me rephrase: Can we allow these
> customers not to reproduce the BSD license text even if our AUTHORS
> file contains names and email addresses of people outside of our
> company? Because that's really all we're after here, allowing certain
> customers not to have to mention that they are using our libraries.

No. If you accept code into your codebase under the BSD licence, then
users of that code have to comply with the license, because you are no
longer able to offer a waiver for the code to which you do not own the
copyright. You have three possible options:

* Pick a project license which does not require attribution (that
basically means a Public Domain dedication); or

* Require copyright assignment or a very broad copyright license to all
contributions, so that you can continue to offer the waiver; or

* Require contributors to give a limited waiver solely for the
attribution clause.

Gerv