google / google/re2j

LICENSE selection is mildly unclear

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Description

Hello awesome people!

I got roped in to looking at this library due to it being a transitive dependency of another dependency I'm using, and I wanted to describe a bit of the experience around figuring out exactly what license applies to this project:

https://github.com/google/re2j/blob/master/build.gradle#L116-L119

The `Go License` best I can tell is not a known SPDX identifier, which makes things a bit unclear when first glancing at stuff. Once you dig a bit, it becomes clear it's a BSD3 style license (only one word really changed from the BSD3 license, HOLDER -> OWNER (screencap attached).

Screen Shot 2020-11-02 at 10 46 41 AM

At any rate, the LICENSE file itself is on this repo, and then you link to an external LICENSE, the Go License (which is more or less BSD3). It is a little difficult right from the get go figuring out which applies, etc... yada yada yada, I'm not a lawyer, no interest in becoming one :)

It would seem like at least using an SPDX identifier would be a good step, or seeing if there are truly any differences to the BSD3 license (English is tough and HOLDER -> OWNER is probably a big change if you ask the right person).

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