Minor legal questions about usr/src/lib/libshell/common/data/builtins.c ... / was: Re: [ksh93-integration-discuss] Re: [osol-code] Round two:((pre-)pre-review) ksh93-integrationwebrev 2007-02-02

[Alan Coopersmith]

Roland Mainz wrote:
> AFAIK the only remaining question is whether the following change to the
> AT&T source file "builtins.c"
> (http://www.nrubsig.org/people/gisburn/work/solaris/ksh93_integration/ksh93_integration_prototype004_webrev_20070210/allfiles/webrev/usr/src/lib/libshell/common/data/builtins.c.html)
> requires that we have to put a CDDL license at the top of that file:

[3-line change]

Standard Sun policy for dealing with changes to sources we don't own is that
changes that small don't generally require copyright notices.   ON normally
requires copyright update for any change that makes a noticable difference
when updating the Sun-controlled code base - you'll probably need the ON
C-Team to decide which policy applies here.

In the open source world, many projects follow the FSF rule of thumb,
which states changes fewer than 10-15 lines of code are not significant
enough to earn copyright protection - you can see this in the FSF
Contributor Agreement docs at:
   http://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain/html_node/Legally-Significant.html
(that page says 15 lines - other FSF pages say 10 lines).

-- 
	-Alan Coopersmith-           alan.coopersmith at sun.com
	 Sun Microsystems, Inc. - X Window System Engineering
	February 2007 Selection: LSARC Chair of the Month Club