llvm dev - Mar 2013 - [LLVMdev] [llvm-c] Copyright notice in language bindings

Hi,

If I write LLVM bindings for a language X, in which I obviously
need to at least use parts of the llvm-c headers (constants, enums, 
typedefs, function names and
signatures) do I need to include the LLVM copyright notice?

Whereas llvm-c has multiple headers (e.g. Analysis.h, BitReader.h, 
Core.h, etc.) my bindings
only have three files constants.d, types.d and functions.d which 
respectively contain all
of the previously mentioned parts.
This means I can't just copy-paste the copyright notice from the llvm-c 
headers
and add LLVM's license.txt as these header license notices contain the 
headers' filenames
(which do not translate to my bindings).
So the most sensible thing would be to put the complete LLVM license at 
the top of
those three files - if that is necessary; I'm not sure if it is, though, 
because since I'm not
copy-pasting the code but adapting it to another language it may not 
strictly count as redistributing
-  especially since I don't copy any of LLVM's algorithms, but *only* 
the C API itself.

Any help regarding this would be appreciated, because I have finished 
writing
the bindings but do not risk publishing them without a correct copyright 
notice if it is
needed.

Thank you for your time,
     Moritz

On Mar 13, 2013, at 6:40 AM, Moritz Maxeiner <moritzmaxeiner at
googlemail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> If I write LLVM bindings for a language X, in which I obviously
> need to at least use parts of the llvm-c headers (constants, enums,
typedefs, function names and
> signatures) do I need to include the LLVM copyright notice?
> 
> Whereas llvm-c has multiple headers (e.g. Analysis.h, BitReader.h, Core.h,
etc.) my bindings
> only have three files constants.d, types.d and functions.d which
respectively contain all
> of the previously mentioned parts.
> This means I can't just copy-paste the copyright notice from the llvm-c
headers
> and add LLVM's license.txt as these header license notices contain the
headers' filenames
> (which do not translate to my bindings).
> So the most sensible thing would be to put the complete LLVM license at the
top of
> those three files - if that is necessary; I'm not sure if it is,
though, because since I'm not
> copy-pasting the code but adapting it to another language it may not
strictly count as redistributing
> -  especially since I don't copy any of LLVM's algorithms, but
*only* the C API itself.
> 
> Any help regarding this would be appreciated, because I have finished
writing
> the bindings but do not risk publishing them without a correct copyright
notice if it is
> needed.
Hi Moritz,

LLVM's license includes a binary redistribution clause:
http://llvm.org/docs/DeveloperPolicy.html#license

Including a note in the documentation that ships with your product (or something
similar) is enough, but you do need to acknowledge that you use llvm.

-Chris

On 03/13/2013 07:26 PM, Chris Lattner wrote:
> LLVM's license includes a binary redistribution clause:
> http://llvm.org/docs/DeveloperPolicy.html#license
Hi Chris,

the problem with the binary redistribution clause is that the bindings 
will not be linked with any part of LLVM.
The bindings will load an LLVM shared library (dll/so/dylib) at runtime 
and thus an application compiled
with said bindings will contain no binary of LLVM (as these will 
seperately resign in the shared library, which
itself has to be distributed together with the license of course, but 
that is not of a concern to the bindings, as they will
not provide this shared library) so as far as I can tell the clause 
would not apply.

Another point is that the binding themselves don't do anything other 
than interfacing with LLVM and are only
provided in source code. The binary redistribution clause would only 
apply to people then in return using these
bindings to access LLVM.
>
> Including a note in the documentation that ships with your product (or
something similar) is enough, but you do need to acknowledge that you use llvm.
>
Would something like this be appropriate then (README.md resides in the 
bindings' root folder), seeing as there is
no binary being distributed?

    README.md:

    ...

    llvm-d uses code fragments from LLVM's C API headers; LLVM is
    distributed under the University of Illinois Open Source
    License. See http://opensource.org/licenses/UoI-NCSA.php for details.


-- Moritz


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