License inconsistency between sources and COPYING

[mgorny]

The COPYING file is LGPL-3.0. However, the source files seem to have:

 * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
 * under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
 * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
 * (at your option) any later version.

Could you please clarify whether '2.1 or newer' is correct (e.g. in README)?

[jeeb]

grep -A2 -m 1 -i "General Public License" -- $(find . -iname '*.c' -o -iname '*.h' -o -iname 'COPYING')
./src/parser_private.h: * under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
./src/parser_private.h- * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
./src/parser_private.h- * (at your option) any later version.
--
./src/decoder_private.h: * under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
./src/decoder_private.h- * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
./src/decoder_private.h- * (at your option) any later version.
--
./src/aribb24.c: * under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
./src/aribb24.c- * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
./src/aribb24.c- * (at your option) any later version.
--
./src/drcs.c: * under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
./src/drcs.c- * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
./src/drcs.c- * (at your option) any later version.
--
./src/aribb24_private.h: * under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
./src/aribb24_private.h- * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
./src/aribb24_private.h- * (at your option) any later version.
--
./src/md5.c: * under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
./src/md5.c- * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
./src/md5.c- * (at your option) any later version.
--
./src/decoder_macro.h: * under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
./src/decoder_macro.h- * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
./src/decoder_macro.h- * (at your option) any later version.
--
./src/aribb24/decoder.h: * under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
./src/aribb24/decoder.h- * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
./src/aribb24/decoder.h- * (at your option) any later version.
--
./src/aribb24/bits.h: * under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
./src/aribb24/bits.h- * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
./src/aribb24/bits.h- * (at your option) any later version.
--
./src/aribb24/aribb24.h: * under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
./src/aribb24/aribb24.h- * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
./src/aribb24/aribb24.h- * (at your option) any later version.
--
./src/aribb24/parser.h: * under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
./src/aribb24/parser.h- * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
./src/aribb24/parser.h- * (at your option) any later version.
--
./src/parser.c: * under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
./src/parser.c- * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
./src/parser.c- * (at your option) any later version.
--
./src/decoder.c: * under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
./src/decoder.c- * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
./src/decoder.c- * (at your option) any later version.
--
./src/convtable.h: * under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
./src/convtable.h- * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
./src/convtable.h- * (at your option) any later version.
--
./src/drcs.h: * under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
./src/drcs.h- * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
./src/drcs.h- * (at your option) any later version.
--
./src/md5.h: * under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
./src/md5.h- * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
./src/md5.h- * (at your option) any later version.
--
./COPYING:                   GNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
./COPYING-                       Version 3, 29 June 2007
./COPYING-

And then if any header files etc miss the license header?

grep -L -i "General Public License" -- $(find . -iname '*.c' -o -iname '*.h' -o -iname 'COPYING')
<empty>

git grep -L -i "General Public License"
.gitignore
Makefile.am
README.md
bootstrap
configure.ac
m4/.dummy
src/aribb24.pc.in

@nkoriyama , while I'm 100% OK with the v3+ requirement if that's the license of the overall work, I would prefer it to be normalized or specified so as to minimize questions like this (to whichever side is the actual license of the combined work). After that a 1.0.4 release could be carved so that LGPL usage could be added to projects. Right now it is not possible to differentiate between a GPL-only version of aribb24 and an LGPL+ version of aribb24 by the version number in the pc file.

プロジェクト全体のライセンスがLGPLv3+であればこういう質問を防ぐためにも一応READMEなどにて明確に表記しておいた方がいいでしょう。「プロジェクト全体のソースファイルがLGPL2.1+ヘッダ付きであっても、このプロジェクトのライセンスはLGPLv3+である」とか。でなければLGPLv2.1+で使いたがる人がかならず出てきて、このような質問を出してくる（と思ふ）。あと、プロジェクトがLGPL系になってからは一度もリリースが出ていないみたいので1.0.4リリースがあればpkg-configでLGPLなバージョンに限定できるようになりますので、できればお願い致します。

[fcartegnie]

Maybe we should fork that project on code.videolan.org. There haven't been any reply for months, and PR won't likely happen