Clarify meaning of empty copyrightText string #688
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Signed-off-by: Steve Winslow <steve@swinslow.net>
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@sschuberth @zvr @goneall I think this addresses the intended outcome of the consensus in #655, but feel free to revise or reject if I've gotten it wrong. |
| @@ -27,6 +27,11 @@ following applies: | |||
| * the SPDX data creator has intentionally provided no information (no | |||
| meaning should be implied by doing so). | |||
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| If a copyrightText is present, but consists of solely an empty string or a | |||
| string with no substantive content (e.g., a string that contains only | |||
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IMO "no substantive content" is a bit too fluffy (as this commit intends to clarify things). For example, some people could interpret the literal copyright holder "E.G." as non-substantive as they might interpret it as "exempli gratia", i.e. a placeholder, whereas other might interpret it as initials of a name.
Thus, I propose to clearly say
If a copyrightText is present but empty or solely consists of whitespace, it should be interpreted as equivalent to a "NOASSERTION" value as described above.
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I disagree that it should only cover empty or blank strings; "no substantive content" is correct.
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"no substantive content" is correct.
I'm sorry, but this is exactly the problem we have with SPDX when it comes to real-world implementations: Legal language being used as a basis for technical specification. I'd have no idea how a validation tool should check for "no substantive content" concretely.
This PR just clarifies that an "empty" copyrightText string should be interpreted as equivalent to
NOASSERTION.Fixes #655
Signed-off-by: Steve Winslow steve@swinslow.net