RUFFIN> The problem is that except for licenses like GPL or Apache2 a
RUFFIN> lot of licenses MIT, BSD, Apache1.1 contain a part which is
RUFFIN> different from one license to another (such as the copyright
RUFFIN> and for old BSD the acknowledgement). And most licenses
RUFFIN> contain the obligation to propagate the copyright/license. So
RUFFIN> if you do not keep a copy of such license, the day you want to
RUFFIN> properly package your product with hundreds of open sources,
RUFFIN> you have again to do the job to look for most licenses.

The license would be embedded in the SPDX file. In fact, you will have
all different licenses in a single place (the SPDX file) for every
project. No need to go back to the source, if it hasn't changed.

Next versions of the SPDX will allow you to extract the licenses from
the SPDX and name them.


By the way, Ninka is not bad at extracting this data. Here are two
examples This is a nice one:

* Copyright (c) 2001 Marko Kreen
* All rights reserved.
*
* Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
* modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
* are met:
* 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
* notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
* 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
* notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
* documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
*
* 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.

that results into:

AllRights,0,Copyright (c) 2001 Marko Kreen ,,
BSDpre,70,,<colon>
BSDcondSource,70,,,above ,,
BSDcondBinary,70,,,,
BSDasIs,10,,,THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ,,A,
BSDWarr,70,,,THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS,

----------------------------------------------------------------------
And this one is more complicated:


* Copyright (c) 1983, 1990, 1993
* The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
*
* Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
* modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
* are met:
* 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
* notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
* 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
* notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
* documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
* 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
* may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
* without specific prior written permission.
*
* THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS 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 REGENTS 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. */

that results into (yes, the all rights sentence misses the copyright
owner because it is in a different one):

AllRights,0,,,
BSDpre,70,,<colon>
BSDcondSource,70,,,above ,,
BSDcondBinary,70,,,,
BSDcondEndorse,70,,,,the University nor the names of its contributors,specific
BSDasIs,10,,,THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ,,A,
BSDWarr,70,,,THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS,


--
--
Daniel M. German
http://turingmachine.org/
http://silvernegative.com/
dmg (at) uvic (dot) ca
replace (at) with @ and (dot) with .