Dear Developers,
"Our" current license header [1] needs changing. As Ren� pointed out, there is no such thing as an LGPLv2, but merely an LGPLv2.1. It was also suggested to use the header [2] that the FSF provides instead of brewing our own. The reasoning behind this is that a lot of lawyer brain power already went into it, so why throw that away. Since that header includes the permission to relicense under any newer version of the LGPL and we do not currently have that permission from all developers, the passage would be need to modified [3].
If you see any problems with the suggested change, please say so either here or in the corresponding issue in the tracker [4].
Assorted opinions on this matter (I can recall) so far: - the reference to "top level directory" is weird - the suggested header is too long - Linux does not use any header at all [5]
Cheers, Ludwig
1) There are several variants of "our" license header: a) This file is subject to the terms and conditions of the GNU Lesser General Public License. See the file LICENSE in the top level directory for more details.
b) This source code is licensed under the LGPLv2 license, See the file LICENSE for more details.
c) This source code is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License, Version 2. See the file LICENSE for more details.
d) This file is subject to the terms and conditions of the LGPLv2. See the file LICENSE in the top level directory for more details.
2) http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-2.1.html#SEC4
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This library 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. See the GNU Lesser General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
3) This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; version 2.1 of the License.
This library 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. See the GNU Lesser General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
4) https://github.com/RIOT-OS/RIOT/pull/1329
5) https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/kernel/sys.c Does not apply to all files though: https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/kernel/module.c