[openstack-dev] [all] "All rights reserved" V.S. "Apache license"

Monty Taylor mordred at inaugust.com
Sat Jan 17 21:07:34 UTC 2015


On 01/17/2015 03:27 AM, ZhiQiang Fan wrote:
> Hi, developers
> 
> I have observed that some source code files in our projects have been
> announced as "Copyright xxx, All rights reserved", and then followed by a
> "Apache License"
> 
> Is this right? any conflict?
> 
> And if one company claims that it reserves all rights for some source
> files,  those source files may have already created by or will be
> maintained by several companies, then what about the others?
> 
> Maybe a stupid question, but will be very appreciated if there is any
> clarification.

It's actually a set of words that is no longer necessary as of the year
2000. It's not communicating anything about a granted license, which is
what the Apache License does - it's actually just asserting that the
original copyright holder asserts that they have not waived any of their
rights as a copyright holder. However, the Berne convention grants this
automatically without a positive assertion.

In short - the words "All rights reserved" neither help or harm anything.



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