Update to License of Python v2.0.1

[ockham]

We've been notified by our automated license checker tool that argparse's License of Python v2 is incompatible with the license that we use -- the GPL.

Would you consider updating to the License of Python v2.0.1? The only difference seems like a minor technicality (but IANAL). As for earlier versions:

This is a free software license but is incompatible with the GNU GPL. The primary incompatibility is that this Python license is governed by the laws of the State of Virginia, in the USA, and the GPL does not permit this.

(from https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.en.html#PythonOld)

[puzrin]

See #159. I'm ok with any valid non-restrictive license.

1. What exact SPDX name do you suggest? https://spdx.org/licenses/. We can't reinvent custom ones.
2. https://spdx.org/licenses/Python-2.0.html - i don't see any GPL issues by current SPDX name.

Are you sure problem is really with license but not with your validator? Seems you confused license version and python version.

[puzrin]

Closing as "no fix required, everything already ok".

[ockham]

Hey, sorry for getting back to this only now. tl;dr Probably fine to leave closed, but SPDX isn't totally accurate.

I've done a bit more research and elaborated at WordPress/gutenberg#28890 (comment) and WordPress/gutenberg#28890 (comment).

I'll quote the relevant bits:

Unlike the Python-2.0 license at SPDX, argparse's LICENSE file doesn't contain the following part:

7. This License Agreement shall be governed by and interpreted in all respects by the law of the State of Virginia, [...]

That part is found in the "CNRI OPEN SOURCE LICENSE AGREEMENT (for Python 1.6b1)" section. (I'm not even sure if that part is legally binding or just there for historic purposes.) Anyway, I think that that part is what is mentioned by the GNU project's license list as the reason for that license being GPL-incompatible:

This is a free software license but is incompatible with the GNU GPL. The primary incompatibility is that this Python license is governed by the laws of the State of Virginia, in the USA, and the GPL does not permit this.

Anyway, argparse's LICENSE has the following instead:

7. This License Agreement shall be governed by the federal
   intellectual property law of the United States, including without
   limitation the federal copyright law, and, to the extent such
   U.S. federal law does not apply, by the law of the Commonwealth of
   Virginia, excluding Virginia's conflict of law provisions. [...]

Note that this is identical to what the GNU Project calls the Python-2.0.1 license (which unfortunately isn't an SPDX-listed license), and lists as GPL-compatible 🎉

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[Ideally,] SPDX [sh]ould include Python-2.0.1, and argparse would set its package.json's license field to it.

• We might want to file an issue/PR against SPDX' GitHub repo, and follow up on the issue I filed on argparse's.
• We could then set the Python-2.0.1 as GPL compatible in our license checker.

For the time being, I was able to unblock our project.
I'll file an issue against SPDX once I find some time (for more legalese PRs).

[ockham]

I'll file an issue against SPDX once I find some time (for more legalese PRs).

Friday night GH issues: spdx/license-list-XML#1200