permission to use spec files in other projects (Was Re: clamav)

[Jeff Spaleta]

On 9/26/07, Greg DeKoenigsberg <gdk at redhat.com> wrote:
> Having a spec file be BSD so that the original author gets credit for
> writing the spec file also makes sense to me.
>
> But really, how deeply should we care?  Maybe it's best to ask Spot to
> make a call.  He's "the licensing guy".  Let him make a sensible decision
> and move on.

I there are there two different issues here. The licensing and giving
credit to contributors to the spec files from which our current
offerings are based.  How much should we care about the licensing
policy? Personally I don't think the licensing of the specs matters at
all. But I think from a PR and morale standpoint finding a way to give
credit where credit is due matters a lot to this community centric
project...even if such credit is not a mandated requirement by the
governing license.

The licensing issue is one of legal requirements and policy (its not
even clear to me specs are copyrightable content) which is orthogonal
to credit. We could just as easily pick a licensing policy that
doesn't mandate credit and end up not solving the underlying problem.

Here are the fundamental questions that I keep coming back to:

Is it ethically wrong for me as a Fedora packager to take an existing
spec file without an explicit license from another location as the
base for the spec file I plan to submit for review?  The pit of my
stomach says no.

Is it ethically wrong for me to do so without giving credit to the
original spec file author?
The pit of my stomach says most likely.

What is the best way to give credit when re-basing the spec file for
fedora submission?
Well off the top of my head, I can do it in the changelog entry for
the specfile or I can do it in the cvs commit entry.  Is either one
better than the other? And if there is a best practices method can we
make it part of the new submission checklist procedures to remind new
contributors that giving credit where credit is due for the spec file
helps make for healthier community relations?

-jef"Speaking of ethics... is it wrong to be happy that my
father-in-law is in the hospital prepping for surgery because the
hospital waiting area has free wifi that I can use to catch up on
email?"spaleta