tests/sample_files/native/*.native: normalized

[ickc]

c.f. jgm/pandoc#6888

Do not merge yet!

By commit 243af31, the pandoc/test/tables/*.native are copied to panflute/tests/sample_files/native/*.native. But it suddenly occurred to me there's a licensing issue here. Since pandoc is GPLv2+ we can't just copy their files here, which is BSD-3-Clause License.

A few possible ways to resolve this:

• I checked the commit history in pandoc, all the 3 native files are committed by @tarleb, so may be it is sufficient to ask tarleb for permission to dual license it for panflute?
• In general, pandoc/test would be a gold mine for anyone writing anything supporting pandoc in anyway (such as a 3rd party pandoc-types, parsers, etc.), so dual licensing everything in pandoc/test would be very useful as many of these 3rd parties are not licensed under GPL. This requires a broader discussion and probably need the consent from everyone contributed in pandoc/test directory so it is of broader scope than here. But may be it is good to keep that in mind.
• If nothing changes from pandoc's side, I can create a similar set of test cases since I need them in pantable anyway.
• IANAL but if I understand it correctly, we cannot say only panflute/tests/sample_files/native/ are licensed in GPLv2 because GPL requires the derived work be in GPL in its entirety.

c.c. @jgm about the licensing issue.

[sergiocorreia]

I think the easy solution would be to add a LICENSE.md file in the folder that states that the license of those three files is GPL3. There's nothing that prevents files with different licenses in the same git repo, as long as it's documented.

[ickc]

See one of the bullet:

• IANAL but if I understand it correctly, we cannot say only panflute/tests/sample_files/native/ are licensed in GPLv2 because GPL requires the derived work be in GPL in its entirety.

[ickc]

I think if you can make sure when you distribute it you don't include those test files then it isn't required to be GPL.

I checked the pip installed version and those tests aren't there so probably it is ok.

[ickc]

I think the story is still a bit more complicated than that, what if people are installing from the GitHub repo?

e.g. you can pip install git+....

Or, like in Arch Linux's AUR: https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/tree/PKGBUILD?h=python-panflute, they link to https://github.com/sergiocorreia/panflute/archive/2.0.5.tar.gz, and here the tests are in the archive.

May be I'm overly careful but unless someone can clarify legally this is ok, putting it in a grey area is not a good thing. Asking @tarleb to dual-license or at worst rewriting those test cases are easier and safer.

[sergiocorreia]

See one of the bullet:

• IANAL but if I understand it correctly, we cannot say only panflute/tests/sample_files/native/ are licensed in GPLv2 because GPL requires the derived work be in GPL in its entirety.

WRT this point, it seems derivative doesn't mean panflute, but it means translating the file, adding to it, etc.

See for instance:

https://opensource.stackexchange.com/questions/1579/when-is-my-project-a-derivative-work-in-an-interpreted-language

Further, GPL3 explicitly grants everyone the license to distribute the file, as long as the license text remains (see sections 4 and 5)

[ickc]

Yes, but see my 2 scenarios above that the distributed archive included the test files. Not from conda/pip where most people likely to obtain panflute, but there's no guarantee how people obtain panflute, especially through the GitHub auto archive itself.

[jgm]

Asking @tarleb for permission to dual license these files is the best approach.

[tarleb]

File planets.native has been created by @kysko and released into the public domain. It is based on a table on MDN; their contents is licensed as CC0.

I hereby release the tables students.native and nordics.native under CC0.

[ickc]

Thanks everyone. I will use that in pantable as well.

It is good to merge now as it is a trivial change. (It makes testing slightly easier as we can expect round trip identity.)

[sergiocorreia]

Is there anything blocking merge?

[ickc]

Is there anything blocking merge?

Just your approval :) This repo is set up in a way that only if it is reviewed by someone it can be merged to master. Probably because you are the owner then you can override it, but I can't.