[FFmpeg-devel] About license headers in .h files

[Diego Biurrun]

On Fri, Oct 19, 2007 at 11:30:57AM +0200, Reimar D?ffinger wrote:
> I feel somewhat uncomfortable having those license headers in one-line
> or API-only files in general.
> Thus I wonder if we should (and if yes where) say that they do not mean
> that we claim those are copyrightable (and actually don't believe they
> are?) but that they are simply there for consistency?
> Maybe it is not really relevant, I'd just like to know your opinions
> because of above-mentioned uncomfortable feel :-).

Nobody is really happy with this, but I think the alternative is worse.
If we do add the standard header to certain files only, what happens if
some real code gets added to those header files?  Are we going to keep
discussing which header files deserve a header and which do not?  I see
some enormous bikesheds and flamewars lurking  in that direction.

However, the most probable outcome is that nobody will bother to add
licensing headers to files that may need them.  So the safe solution is
to add them to all files and never again have to bother.  After all, iff
the code is not copyrightable, reusing it while ignoring the license is
not a problem.

Also note that many of those headers carry a GPL header but no copyright
line.

Diego