Managing googles LICENSE + PATENTS file mis-classifications
jonabc opened this issue · comments
Previously reported at #194, I'm opening a new issue only given the age of that report
Many of Google's go packages follow a legal files setup where there is a bsd-3-clause LICENSE file and an additional PATENTS file. Licensee considers both files to be valid license contents (1, 2), which in this case leads to a large number of "other" classifications because the patents file does not match any license templates.
I've avoided handling this in the past because this is "by design" and honestly wouldn't get as much attention if it wasn't Google's packages causing the issue... but they are Google's and they are widely used so it's something licensed should probably fix to ease a known source of friction.
cc @mlinksva @benbalter 👋 this could be handled on either side of the licensee/licensed divide. I'm curious for your thoughts on this issue, if you think it's something we should be fixing, and if you have any specific ideas on what a fix would look like