Re: [PATCH] fs/nls: Add SPDX ID lines to files

On Thu, Jun 11, 2026 at 3:37=E2=80=AFPM Tim Bird <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Almost all the files in the fs/nls directory are missing
> SPDX-License-Identifier lines.  Add the Unicode-3.0 license to
> LICENSES/preferred, and reference that in the ID lines for
> the pertinent files.
>
> Many of these source files were introduced in 1997 by
> Gordon Chafee, who states that data tables were automatically
> generated from materials on the www.unicode.org web site.
> This pre-dates when that site had an explicit license, and
> these files are missing any license text.
>
> Files starting with 'mac-' prefix were added in 2012 by
> Vladimir Serbinenko.  These files have an earlier Unicode license
> with slight differences from the current license that is preferred by
> Unicode, Inc.
>
> Use the current Unicode license (Unicode-3.0) (in conjunction with
> GPL-2.0) for all files that have data that was obtained from Unicode, Inc=
.
> Use 'GPL-2.0' as the license ID for other files.

I might be misunderstanding but, at least where there was an explicit
license notice, and assuming the Unicode mapping stuff even requires a
license why not use an SPDX identifier for the legacy Unicode license
(assuming it exists as an SPDX identifier, I haven't actually
checked)? In other words, it seems like you're making a legal
conclusion here that Unicode-3.0 is a valid license for what was
previously either not explicitly licensed or was under a different
Unicode license. I can see how that might be the case, but it doesn't
seem to *necessarily* be the case.

Richard