GPL + disclaimer variants

GPL + disclaimer variants

[Thomas Gleixner]

Hi!

Just to make the scope a bit clearer. I just did some statistics on 5
variants of disclaimers. That's not complete as it was just a quick and
dirty hack to gather the information.

1) The simple one Richard pointed out today (Rule 80)

       This program is licensed "as is" without any warranty of any kind,
       whether express or implied.

   Files total:				592

   Files without Copyright notice:	 94	(needs git archaeology)

   Copyright holders:	   		177

   At least two of the copyright holders have passed away and I just quick
   checked a few weird company names and found 3 which have not left any
   traces on Gurgle. Quite a few company names have gone through various
   acquisitions ....

2) The Alan Cox variant:

   Neither $NAME nor $CORP admit liability nor provide warranty for any of
   this software. This material is * provided "AS-IS" and at no charge.

   Files total:				22

   Names/Companies in the disclaimer:	7/5

   Most of it is Alan Cox, but there are a few other names there as
   well. No idea whether those people can still be reached. Two names sound
   familiar enough though.


3) The BSD style disclaimer (assumed to originate from TI/RidgeRun)

    THIS  SOFTWARE  IS PROVIDED   ``AS  IS'' AND   ANY  EXPRESS OR IMPLIED
    WARRANTIES,   INCLUDING, BUT NOT  LIMITED  TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
    MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN
    NO  EVENT  SHALL   THE AUTHOR  BE    LIABLE FOR ANY   DIRECT, INDIRECT,
    INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT
    NOT LIMITED   TO, PROCUREMENT OF  SUBSTITUTE GOODS  OR SERVICES; LOSS OF
    USE, DATA,  OR PROFITS; OR  BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON
    ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN  CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
    (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF
    THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

   Files total:	   	   	      	  97
   
   Files without Copyright notice:	  10	(needs git archaeology)
   
   Copyright holders:			  35

   A mix of indivuduals and corporates

     IDT, AMD, ATecoM, Bosch, Lemote, Alchemy Semi, Montavista, TI, Nokia,
     Toshiba, RidgeRun, PMC-Sierra, Embedded Edge, Accelent, Flaga Medical
     Devices.

     Some of them have been through one or more acquisitons ...

  Many of the individuals are OpenWRT folks, but also names without a
  proper trace.


4) The Samsung beast

    This program is provided "AS IS" and "WITH ALL FAULTS" and
    without warranty of any kind. You are solely responsible for
    determining the appropriateness of using and distributing
    the program and assume all risks associated with your exercise
    of rights with respect to the program, including but not limited
    to infringement of third party rights, the risks and costs of
    program errors, damage to or loss of data, programs or equipment,
    and unavailability or interruption of operations. Under no
    circumstances will the contributor of this Program be liable for
    any damages of any kind arising from your use or distribution of
    this program.


   Files:				7

   Copyright holders:			2

   	     Samsung and a few files have a LF copyright as well

   Samsung has been cleaning up their files over the last year so this one
   should be possible to get rid off. No idea whom to talk to though.

5) The IBM magic one

     NO WARRANTY
     THE PROGRAM IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR
     CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED INCLUDING, WITHOUT
     LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT,
     MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Each Recipient is
     solely responsible for determining the appropriateness of using and
     distributing the Program and assumes all risks associated with its
     exercise of rights under this Agreement, including but not limited to
     the risks and costs of program errors, damage to or loss of data,
     programs or equipment, and unavailability or interruption of operations.

     DISCLAIMER OF LIABILITY
     NEITHER RECIPIENT NOR ANY CONTRIBUTORS SHALL HAVE ANY LIABILITY FOR ANY
     DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
     DAMAGES (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION LOST PROFITS), HOWEVER CAUSED AND
     ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR
     TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE
     USE OR DISTRIBUTION OF THE PROGRAM OR THE EXERCISE OF ANY RIGHTS GRANTED
     HEREUNDER, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES

   Files total:	     		       56

   The newest additon of that beast happened in 2012. Copy and paste are
   your friend!

   Copyright holders:

   	     IBM, LSI, Applied Micro Circuits, Avago Technologies,
   	     Microsemi Corporation, PMC-Sierra Inc., ATTO Technology Inc.,
	     Adaptec Inc, Dell, 3ware, Suse

	     Adaptec, PMC-Sierra, Microsemi are now 'Microchip Technology Inc'

	     3ware, Applied Micro are now MACOM Technology Solutions

	     LSI, Avago are now Broadcom


We surely should be able to cleanup a few of these things (hopefuly the
Samsung one) in the foreseeable future, but the rest is going to be very
interesting and time consuming.

I'm also not sure whether I catched all the fancy disclaimer variants, so
there is a good chance that the above 774 instances are just a fraction of
the total damage.

Thanks,

	tglx

Re: GPL + disclaimer variants

[Kate Stewart]

On Wed, May 22, 2019 at 3:39 PM Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de> wrote:
>
> Hi!
>
> Just to make the scope a bit clearer. I just did some statistics on 5
> variants of disclaimers. That's not complete as it was just a quick and
> dirty hack to gather the information.
>
> 1) The simple one Richard pointed out today (Rule 80)
>
>        This program is licensed "as is" without any warranty of any kind,
>        whether express or implied.
>
>    Files total:                         592
>
>    Files without Copyright notice:       94     (needs git archaeology)
>
>    Copyright holders:                   177
>
>    At least two of the copyright holders have passed away and I just quick
>    checked a few weird company names and found 3 which have not left any
>    traces on Gurgle. Quite a few company names have gone through various
>    acquisitions ....

This seems like a likely candidate then to add to the SPDX license list
as its own identifier,  there are a lot of parallels to the Linux_OpenIB.
>
> 2) The Alan Cox variant:
>
>    Neither $NAME nor $CORP admit liability nor provide warranty for any of
>    this software. This material is * provided "AS-IS" and at no charge.
>
>    Files total:                         22
>
>    Names/Companies in the disclaimer:   7/5
>
>    Most of it is Alan Cox, but there are a few other names there as
>    well. No idea whether those people can still be reached. Two names sound
>    familiar enough though.
>
>
> 3) The BSD style disclaimer (assumed to originate from TI/RidgeRun)
>
>     THIS  SOFTWARE  IS PROVIDED   ``AS  IS'' AND   ANY  EXPRESS OR IMPLIED
>     WARRANTIES,   INCLUDING, BUT NOT  LIMITED  TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
>     MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN
>     NO  EVENT  SHALL   THE AUTHOR  BE    LIABLE FOR ANY   DIRECT, INDIRECT,
>     INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT
>     NOT LIMITED   TO, PROCUREMENT OF  SUBSTITUTE GOODS  OR SERVICES; LOSS OF
>     USE, DATA,  OR PROFITS; OR  BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON
>     ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN  CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
>     (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF
>     THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
>
>    Files total:                           97
>
>    Files without Copyright notice:        10    (needs git archaeology)
>
>    Copyright holders:                     35
>
>    A mix of indivuduals and corporates
>
>      IDT, AMD, ATecoM, Bosch, Lemote, Alchemy Semi, Montavista, TI, Nokia,
>      Toshiba, RidgeRun, PMC-Sierra, Embedded Edge, Accelent, Flaga Medical
>      Devices.
>
>      Some of them have been through one or more acquisitons ...
>
>   Many of the individuals are OpenWRT folks, but also names without a
>   proper trace.

This one is a bit more ambiguous as to whether it warrants its own id or not.
Can you send me the filepaths to the 10 files without copyright notices?

>
>
> 4) The Samsung beast
>
>     This program is provided "AS IS" and "WITH ALL FAULTS" and
>     without warranty of any kind. You are solely responsible for
>     determining the appropriateness of using and distributing
>     the program and assume all risks associated with your exercise
>     of rights with respect to the program, including but not limited
>     to infringement of third party rights, the risks and costs of
>     program errors, damage to or loss of data, programs or equipment,
>     and unavailability or interruption of operations. Under no
>     circumstances will the contributor of this Program be liable for
>     any damages of any kind arising from your use or distribution of
>     this program.
>
>
>    Files:                               7
>
>    Copyright holders:                   2
>
>              Samsung and a few files have a LF copyright as well
>
>    Samsung has been cleaning up their files over the last year so this one
>    should be possible to get rid off. No idea whom to talk to though.

Jilayne,  do you have a current contact here?   Otherwise,  I can see
if we can track one down through Shuah or Ibrahim.

>
> 5) The IBM magic one
>
>      NO WARRANTY
>      THE PROGRAM IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR
>      CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED INCLUDING, WITHOUT
>      LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT,
>      MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Each Recipient is
>      solely responsible for determining the appropriateness of using and
>      distributing the Program and assumes all risks associated with its
>      exercise of rights under this Agreement, including but not limited to
>      the risks and costs of program errors, damage to or loss of data,
>      programs or equipment, and unavailability or interruption of operations.
>
>      DISCLAIMER OF LIABILITY
>      NEITHER RECIPIENT NOR ANY CONTRIBUTORS SHALL HAVE ANY LIABILITY FOR ANY
>      DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
>      DAMAGES (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION LOST PROFITS), HOWEVER CAUSED AND
>      ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR
>      TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE
>      USE OR DISTRIBUTION OF THE PROGRAM OR THE EXERCISE OF ANY RIGHTS GRANTED
>      HEREUNDER, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES
>
>    Files total:                        56
>
>    The newest additon of that beast happened in 2012. Copy and paste are
>    your friend!
>
>    Copyright holders:
>
>              IBM, LSI, Applied Micro Circuits, Avago Technologies,
>              Microsemi Corporation, PMC-Sierra Inc., ATTO Technology Inc.,
>              Adaptec Inc, Dell, 3ware, Suse
>
>              Adaptec, PMC-Sierra, Microsemi are now 'Microchip Technology Inc'
>
>              3ware, Applied Micro are now MACOM Technology Solutions
>
>              LSI, Avago are now Broadcom
>
>
> We surely should be able to cleanup a few of these things (hopefuly the
> Samsung one) in the foreseeable future, but the rest is going to be very
> interesting and time consuming.
>
> I'm also not sure whether I catched all the fancy disclaimer variants, so
> there is a good chance that the above 774 instances are just a fraction of
> the total damage.

Thanks for the useful summary and scoping the problem!

Kate

Re: GPL + disclaimer variants

[Dominik Brodowski]

Thomas,

On Wed, May 22, 2019 at 10:39:47PM +0200, Thomas Gleixner wrote:
> 1) The simple one Richard pointed out today (Rule 80)
> 
>        This program is licensed "as is" without any warranty of any kind,
>        whether express or implied.
> 
>    Files total:				592
> 
>    Files without Copyright notice:	 94	(needs git archaeology)
> 
>    Copyright holders:	   		177

how do you determine who is a copyright holder? Is it sufficient to look
at those who added themselves to a copyright notice? Or may there be more
copyright holders to a file than those listed in that notice -- and might
they have contributed their work with that additional disclaimer as well?

I am no copyright lawyer though...

Thanks,
	Dominik

Re: GPL + disclaimer variants

[Thomas Gleixner]

On Thu, 23 May 2019, Dominik Brodowski wrote:
> On Wed, May 22, 2019 at 10:39:47PM +0200, Thomas Gleixner wrote:
> > 1) The simple one Richard pointed out today (Rule 80)
> > 
> >        This program is licensed "as is" without any warranty of any kind,
> >        whether express or implied.
> > 
> >    Files total:				592
> > 
> >    Files without Copyright notice:	 94	(needs git archaeology)
> > 
> >    Copyright holders:	   		177
> 
> how do you determine who is a copyright holder? Is it sufficient to look
> at those who added themselves to a copyright notice? Or may there be more
> copyright holders to a file than those listed in that notice -- and might
> they have contributed their work with that additional disclaimer as well?

Yes, that's a concern and that's why I proposed to keep the custom
disclaimers around and mark them accordingly.

See:

https://lore.kernel.org/linux-spdx/alpine.DEB.2.21.1905201915150.1635@nanos.tec.linutronix.de

Thanks,

	tglx

Re: GPL + disclaimer variants

[Thomas Gleixner]

On Wed, 22 May 2019, Thomas Gleixner wrote:

> I'm also not sure whether I catched all the fancy disclaimer variants, so
> there is a good chance that the above 774 instances are just a fraction of
> the total damage.

I did some deeper inspection and here are the normalized variants of fancy
disclaimers bolted onto a GPL reference/notice:

I'll work on a better represenation in the next days, but wanted to shared
the result. My initial guess of more than 20 is not far off and it took me
some massaging - e.g. replacing 'file, module, package' by software to
reduce the zoo quite a bit. Without that reduction it's about 40 ...

Thanks,

	tglx

8<------------------


this software is provided as is and with all faults and without
warranty of any kind you are solely responsible for determining the
appropriateness of using and distributing this software and assume all
risks associated with your exercise of rights with respect to this
software including but not limited to infringement of third party
rights the risks and costs of program errors damage to or loss of data
programs or equipment and unavailability or interruption of operations
under no circumstances will the contributor of this software be liable
for any damages of any kind arising from your use or distribution of
this software

no warranty this software is provided on an as is basis without
warranties or conditions of any kind either express or implied
including without limitation any warranties or conditions of title non
infringement merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose each
recipient is solely responsible for determining the appropriateness of
using and distributing this software and assumes all risks associated
with its exercise of rights under this agreement including but not
limited to the risks and costs of program errors damage to or loss of
data programs or equipment and unavailability or interruption of
operations disclaimer of liability neither recipient nor any
contributors shall have any liability for any direct indirect
incidental special exemplary or consequential damages including
without limitation lost profits however caused and on any theory of
liability whether in contract strict liability or tort including
negligence or otherwise arising in any way out of the use or
distribution of this software or the exercise of any rights granted
hereunder even if advised of the possibility of such damages

software distributed under the license is distributed on an as is
basis without warranty of any kind either express or implied see the
license for the specific language governing rights and limitations
under the license

software distributed under the license is distributed on an as is
basis without warranty of any kind either express or implied see the
gnu general public license for more details

this software is distributed in the hope that it will be useful but
without any warranty without even the implied warranty of
merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose good title or non
infringement

this software is provided by the copyright holders and contributors as
is and any express or implied warranties including but not limited to
the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular
purpose are disclaimed in no event shall the copyright owner or
contributors be liable for any direct indirect incidental special
exemplary or consequential damages including but not limited to
procurement of substitute goods or services loss of use data or
profits or business interruption however caused and on any theory of
liability whether in contract strict liability or tort including
negligence or otherwise arising in any way out of the use of this
software even if advised of the possibility of such damage this
software is provided by the copyright holders and contributors as is
and any express or implied warranties including but not limited to the
implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular
purpose are disclaimed in no event shall the copyright owner or
contributors be liable for any direct indirect incidental special
exemplary or consequential damages including but not limited to
procurement of substitute goods or services loss of use data or
profits or business interruption however caused and on any theory of
liability whether in contract strict liability or tort including
negligence or otherwise arising in any way out of the use of this
software even if advised of the possibility of such damage

no warranty of any kind

this software is provided as is without warranty of any kind express
or implied including but not limited to the warranties of
merchantability fitness for a particular purpose and noninfringement
in no event shall the authors or copyright holders be liable for any
claim damages or other liability whether in an action of contract tort
or otherwise arising from out of or in connection with this software
or the use or other dealings in this software

this software is provided as is and without any express or implied
warranties including without limitation the implied warranties of
merchantibility and fitness for a particular purpose

this software is distributed as is without any warranty of any kind
whether express or implied without even the implied warranty of
merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose see the gnu
general public license for more details

this software is provided as is without warranty of any kind express
or implied including but not limited to the warranties of
merchantability fitness for a particular purpose and noninfringement
of third party rights in no event shall the copyright holder s and
author s be liable for any claim or any special indirect or
consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of
use data or profits whether in an action of contract negligence or
other tortious action arising out of or in connection with the use or
performance of this software all liability including liability for
infringement of any patents copyrights trademarks or other rights
relating to use of this software is disclaimed

this software is distributed in the hope that it will be useful but as
is and without any warranty without even the implied warranty of
merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose title or
noninfringement

this software is distributed as is without warranty of any kind and
the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular
purpose are expressly disclaimed the license provides additional
details about this warranty disclaimer

this software is provided by the author and contributors as is and any
express or implied warranties including but not limited to the implied
warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose are
disclaimed in no event shall the author or contributors be liable for
any direct indirect incidental special exemplary or consequential
damages including but not limited to procurement of substitute goods
or services loss of use data or profits or business interruption
however caused and on any theory of liability whether in contract
strict liability or tort including negligence or otherwise arising in
any way out of the use of this software even if advised of the
possibility of such damage

this software is provided as is and any express or implied warranties
including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability
and fitness for a particular purpose are disclaimed in no event shall
the author be liable for any direct indirect incidental special
exemplary or consequential damages including but not limited to
procurement of substitute goods or services loss of use data or
profits or business interruption however caused and on any theory of
liability whether in contract strict liability or tort including
negligence or otherwise arising in any way out of the use of this
software even if advised of the possibility of such damage

the copyright holders and or other parties provide this software as is
without warranty of any kind either expressed or implied including but
not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness
for a particular purpose the entire risk as to the quality and
performance of this software is with you should this software prove
defective you assume the cost of all necessary servicing repair or
correction

this software is distributed in the hope that it will be useful all
express or implied conditions representations and warranties including
any implied warranty of merchantability fitness for a particular
purpose or non infringement are disclaimed except to the extent that
such disclaimers are held to be legally invalid

this software is provided on an as is basis without warranties or
conditions of any kind either express or implied including without
limitation any warranties or conditions of title non infringement
merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose each recipient is
solely responsible for determining the appropriateness of using and
distributing this software and assumes all risks associated with its
exercise of rights under this agreement including but not limited to
the risks and costs of program errors damage to or loss of data
programs or equipment and unavailability or interruption of operations
disclaimer of liability neither recipient nor any contributors shall
have any liability for any direct indirect incidental special
exemplary or consequential damages including without limitation lost
profits however caused and on any theory of liability whether in
contract strict liability or tort including negligence or otherwise
arising in any way out of the use or distribution of this software or
the exercise of any rights granted hereunder even if advised of the
possibility of such damages

this software is provided by the copyright holders and contributors as
is and any express or implied warranties including but not limited to
the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular
purpose are disclaimed in no event shall the copyright owner or
contributors be liable for any direct indirect incidental special
exemplary or consequential damages including but not limited to
procurement of substitute goods or services loss of use data or
profits or business interruption however caused and on any theory of
liability whether in contract strict liability or tort including
negligence or otherwise arising in any way out of the use of this
software even if advised of the possibility of such damage

this software is licensed as is without any warranty of any kind
whether express or implied

this software is provided as is and without any express or implied
warranties including without limitation the implied warranties of
merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose

this software is distributed as is without any warranty of any kind
whether express or implied without even the implied warranty of
merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose

this software is provided as is and with all faults and without
warranty of any kind you are solely responsible for determining the
appropriateness of using and distributing this software and assume all
risks associated with your exercise of rights with respect to this
software including but not limited to infringement of third party
rights the risks and costs of program errors damage to or loss of data
programs or equipment and unavailability or interruption of operations
under no circumstances will the contributor of this software be liable
for any damages of any kind arising from your use or distribution of
this software the linux foundation chooses to take subject only to the
gplv2 license terms and distributes only under these terms

this software is distributed in the hope that it will be useful but
without any warranty without even the implied warranty of
merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose good title or non
infringement see the gnu general public license for more details