DISCLAIMER: IANAL Recently some PR's/discussion has opened up on github regarding whether we should be putting Apache Headers on configuration files (i.e. reference.conf files). As some people already know, we had to undergo a process to add the headers to source files but in my view putting the Apache header on configuration files is at best completely unnecessary and in some cases can be harmful. For those not that familiar with typesafe reference.conf files, you can treat them the exact same way as Java .properties files.
My reasoning is that configuration files are treated completely separately compared to source files, in this sense they are much more akin to documentation rather than source of a project. The protections/stipulations provided by the Apache license definitely makes sense for source contents, but they can be overly excessive/restrictive when placed on a conf file and one example where this can cause problems is cases like https://mariadb.com/kb/en/mariadb-configuration-file-license/. In summary the content in configuration files have the expectation to be copied and worked on (i.e. copying the base configuration file and changing the default values is typical for users) and there shouldn't be any restrictions on this. Furthermore this content is not expressive enough to be considered of value when it comes to things like copyright (I believe this is one of the major reasons why there is no Lightbend copyright header for conf files). If the Lightbend header happened to already exist in the configuration files there would be sense in biting the bullet but since this is not the case to me I see it as preferable if we just leave the conf files. Thoughts? -- Matthew de Detrich *Aiven Deutschland GmbH* Immanuelkirchstraße 26, 10405 Berlin Amtsgericht Charlottenburg, HRB 209739 B Geschäftsführer: Oskari Saarenmaa & Hannu Valtonen *m:* +491603708037 *w:* aiven.io *e:* [email protected]
