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VFS-License-clarification: minor improvements aligning w/ GPLv3 text
The phrase "derived work" and word "derived" don't appear in GPLv3; instead, GPLv3 uses the phrases "modified version" and "based on" to implement the strong copyleft clause. Herein, align the VFS statement with the phrases as they appear in the GPLv3 since Samba's license is GPLv3-or-later. Included are also a few other very minor wording changes as suggested by legal counsel who is experienced with presenting these sorts of licensing statements to company lawyers and suggests these changes will comfort that constituency. Finally, update both occurrences of the statement in the codebase in two different files. Signed-off-by: Bradley M. Kuhn <[email protected]> Reviewed-by: Jim McDonough <[email protected]> Reviewed-by: Karolin Seeger <[email protected]> Reviewed-by: Andrew Bartlett <[email protected]> Reviewed-by: Jeremy Allison <[email protected]>
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VFS-License-clarification.txt

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A clarification of the GNU GPL License boundary within the Samba
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A clarification of our GNU GPL License enforcement boundary within the Samba
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Virtual File System (VFS) layer.
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Samba is licensed under the GNU GPL. All code committed to the Samba
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project or creating a derived work must be either licensed under the
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GNU GPL or a compatible license.
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project or that creates a "modified version" or software "based on" Samba must
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be either licensed under the GNU GPL or a compatible license.
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Samba has several plug-in interfaces where external code may be called
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from Samba GNU GPL licensed code. The most important of these is the
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As long as these third-party external libraries do not use any of the
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Samba internal structure, APIs or interface definitions created by the
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Samba project that are licensed under the GNU GPL then it is the view
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of the Samba Team that such third-party external libraries called from
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Samba VFS modules are not part of the Samba code and cannot be
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considered a derived work of Samba for the purposes of GNU GPL
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licensing. Thus such libraries are not required to be under the GNU
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GPL or a GNU GPL compatible license.
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Samba project (to the extent that they would be considered subject to the GNU
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GPL), then the Samba Team will not consider such third-party external
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libraries called from Samba VFS modules as "based on" and/or creating a
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"modified version" of the Samba code for the purposes of GNU GPL.
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Accordingly, we do not require such libraries be licensed under the GNU GPL
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or a GNU GPL compatible license.

WHATSNEW.txt

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in the file: VFS-License-clarification.txt.
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--------------------------------------------------------------
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A clarification of the GNU GPL License boundary within the Samba
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A clarification of our GNU GPL License enforcement boundary within the Samba
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Virtual File System (VFS) layer.
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Samba is licensed under the GNU GPL. All code committed to the Samba
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project or creating a derived work must be either licensed under the
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GNU GPL or a compatible license.
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project or that creates a "modified version" or software "based on" Samba must
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be either licensed under the GNU GPL or a compatible license.
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Samba has several plug-in interfaces where external code may be called
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from Samba GNU GPL licensed code. The most important of these is the
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As long as these third-party external libraries do not use any of the
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Samba internal structure, APIs or interface definitions created by the
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Samba project that are licensed under the GNU GPL then it is the view
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of the Samba Team that such third-party external libraries called from
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Samba VFS modules are not part of the Samba code and cannot be
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considered a derived work of Samba for the purposes of GNU GPL
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licensing. Thus such libraries are not required to be under the GNU
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GPL or a GNU GPL compatible license.
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Samba project (to the extent that they would be considered subject to the GNU
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GPL), then the Samba Team will not consider such third-party external
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libraries called from Samba VFS modules as "based on" and/or creating a
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"modified version" of the Samba code for the purposes of GNU GPL.
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Accordingly, we do not require such libraries be licensed under the GNU GPL
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or a GNU GPL compatible license.
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Client Group Policy
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-------------------

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