License of .spec files

[Ralf Corsepius]

On Sun, 2007-08-19 at 09:52 -0400, Tom "spot" Callaway wrote:
> On Sun, 2007-08-19 at 09:49 +0200, Marek Mahut wrote:
> > Hello all,
> > 
> > I have a question, probably for spot, what's the license of .spec file
> > it-self? Is it under license of a product or indirectly signed by CLA?
> > Is it a good idea to include the license specification about the spec
> > file in the .spec file?
> 
> FWIW, licensing the .spec files never made much sense to me.
> 
> 1. There's very little original copyrightable work in a spec file.
> 2. The license of the spec file itself would have nothing to do with the
> contents of the RPM, other than that the spec file would also be
> included as a separate file inside the RPM. So, the spec file is not
> automatically under the same license as the bits being packaged up.
> 3. Is it indirectly signed by the CLA? More like directly.
> 
> <CLA?
> 
> You hereby grant to Red Hat, Inc., on behalf of the Project, and to
> recipients of software distributed by the Project: 
> 
> a perpetual, non-exclusive, worldwide, fully paid-up, royalty free,
> irrevocable copyright license to reproduce, prepare derivative works of,
> publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, and distribute your
> Contribution and such derivative works;
> 
> </CLA>
> 
> Since spec files would fall within your Contribution, anyone getting
> them from Fedora can reproduce, make derived works of, display, publicly
> perform ("A Tale Of Two Spec Files"), sublicense, and distribute them
> freely.

IMO, this section attempts to implement additional clauses on works
having been derived from other party's GPL'ed works - I therefore think
the CLA is incompatible to and non-applicable to GPL/LGPL'ed packages.

Other major linux distributions acknowledge this fact and add
<cite>
# This file and all modifications and additions to the pristine
# package are under the same license as the package itself.
</cite>
to their specs. I do the same for all spec files containing major
(likely copyrightable) works and major patches.