What is considered redistribution?

Question

Hi

I have lots of plugins and each has it's own license at the top and they can be a bit on the long side. I am trying to minifiy and compress everything to get the smallest sizes possible but these licenses can add quite a bit of KB.

So I am wondering if I can just remove them or maybe just link to the file instead since I understand if I was giving the file to someone else that they know what the license, who made it and terms are but to me it seems kinda stupid when everything in compressed into one file and into one line to have them.

So thats what I am not sure about what they mean by redistribution. Is a user downloading all my scripts on my site our they considered under this?

Here is a sample license of one of my plugins I use.

/* Copyright (c) 2009, CodePlex Foundation All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

• Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions

and the following disclaimer.

• Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

• Neither the name of CodePlex Foundation nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS AS IS AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. */

Another idea I had was just stick all these licenses in a pdf and how a link to it in my footer.

Answer 1

I expect it is okay to minify those files and use a .min.js extension. Keep the original .js files in the same directory should anyone want to see them.

Answer 2

The problem with javascript is that it's gotta be public when you use it on your site. If I were you, I'd minify all your scripts/plugs together, and put a nice comment block @ the top linking all plugins & thier respective licences, something like this:

/*
 * Minified In this file:
 *
 * jQuery - Licence at http://www.mysite.com/licences/jQuery.txt
 * jQuery.history - Licence at http://www.mysite.com/licences/jQuery.history.txt
 * something.else - Licence at http://www.mysite.com/licences/something.else.txt
 */

This way you're providing the licences for all the code you've used, you've given credit and mentioned that all you've done to it is minified it.

I wouldn't consider minifying code as "changing it" per say. It operates the same, it's just smaller, and obfuscated (which may not be your intent, but is a side-effect), you're listing WHAT is in the minified file, so people can go get the full source code if they want.

The other solution is to minify them seperately and paste the licence for each @ the top of each file.