[GH-ISSUE #6] Relicense under dual MIT/Apache-2.0 #302

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opened 2026-03-15 21:50:46 +03:00 by kerem · 2 comments

kerem commented

2026-03-15 21:50:46 +03:00

Owner

Originally created by @emberian on GitHub (Jan 10, 2016).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/hickory-dns/hickory-dns/issues/6

This issue was automatically generated. Feel free to close without ceremony if
you do not agree with re-licensing or if it is not possible for other reasons.
Respond to @cmr with any questions or concerns, or pop over to
#rust-offtopic on IRC to discuss.

You're receiving this because someone (perhaps the project maintainer)
published a crates.io package with the license as "MIT" xor "Apache-2.0" and
the repository field pointing here.

TL;DR the Rust ecosystem is largely Apache-2.0. Being available under that
license is good for interoperation. The MIT license as an add-on can be nice
for GPLv2 projects to use your code.

Why?

The MIT license requires reproducing countless copies of the same copyright
header with different names in the copyright field, for every MIT library in
use. The Apache license does not have this drawback. However, this is not the
primary motivation for me creating these issues. The Apache license also has
protections from patent trolls and an explicit contribution licensing clause.
However, the Apache license is incompatible with GPLv2. This is why Rust is
dual-licensed as MIT/Apache (the "primary" license being Apache, MIT only for
GPLv2 compat), and doing so would be wise for this project. This also makes
this crate suitable for inclusion and unrestricted sharing in the Rust
standard distribution and other projects using dual MIT/Apache, such as my
personal ulterior motive, the Robigalia project.

Some ask, "Does this really apply to binary redistributions? Does MIT really
require reproducing the whole thing?" I'm not a lawyer, and I can't give legal
advice, but some Google Android apps include open source attributions using
this interpretation. Others also agree with
it.
But, again, the copyright notice redistribution is not the primary motivation
for the dual-licensing. It's stronger protections to licensees and better
interoperation with the wider Rust ecosystem.

How?

To do this, get explicit approval from each contributor of copyrightable work
(as not all contributions qualify for copyright, due to not being a "creative
work", e.g. a typo fix) and then add the following to your README:

## License

Licensed under either of

 * Apache License, Version 2.0, ([LICENSE-APACHE](LICENSE-APACHE) or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
 * MIT license ([LICENSE-MIT](LICENSE-MIT) or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)

at your option.

### Contribution

Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted
for inclusion in the work by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be dual licensed as above, without any
additional terms or conditions.

and in your license headers, if you have them, use the following boilerplate
(based on that used in Rust):

// Copyright 2016 trust-dns Developers
//
// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0, <LICENSE-APACHE or
// http://apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0> or the MIT license <LICENSE-MIT or
// http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT>, at your option. This file may not be
// copied, modified, or distributed except according to those terms.

It's commonly asked whether license headers are required. I'm not comfortable
making an official recommendation either way, but the Apache license
recommends it in their appendix on how to use the license.

Be sure to add the relevant LICENSE-{MIT,APACHE} files. You can copy these
from the Rust repo for a plain-text
version.

And don't forget to update the license metadata in your Cargo.toml to:

license = "MIT OR Apache-2.0"

I'll be going through projects which agree to be relicensed and have approval
by the necessary contributors and doing this changes, so feel free to leave
the heavy lifting to me!

Contributor checkoff

To agree to relicensing, comment with :

I license past and future contributions under the dual MIT/Apache-2.0 license, allowing licensees to chose either at their option.

Or, if you're a contributor, you can check the box in this repo next to your
name. My scripts will pick this exact phrase up and check your checkbox, but
I'll come through and manually review this issue later as well.

@bluejekyll

Originally created by @emberian on GitHub (Jan 10, 2016). Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/hickory-dns/hickory-dns/issues/6 This issue was automatically generated. Feel free to close without ceremony if you do not agree with re-licensing or if it is not possible for other reasons. Respond to @cmr with any questions or concerns, or pop over to `#rust-offtopic` on IRC to discuss. You're receiving this because someone (perhaps the project maintainer) published a crates.io package with the license as "MIT" xor "Apache-2.0" and the repository field pointing here. TL;DR the Rust ecosystem is largely Apache-2.0. Being available under that license is good for interoperation. The MIT license as an add-on can be nice for GPLv2 projects to use your code. # Why? The MIT license requires reproducing countless copies of the same copyright header with different names in the copyright field, for every MIT library in use. The Apache license does not have this drawback. However, this is not the primary motivation for me creating these issues. The Apache license also has protections from patent trolls and an explicit contribution licensing clause. However, the Apache license is incompatible with GPLv2. This is why Rust is dual-licensed as MIT/Apache (the "primary" license being Apache, MIT only for GPLv2 compat), and doing so would be wise for this project. This also makes this crate suitable for inclusion and unrestricted sharing in the Rust standard distribution and other projects using dual MIT/Apache, such as my personal ulterior motive, [the Robigalia project](https://robigalia.org). Some ask, "Does this really apply to binary redistributions? Does MIT really require reproducing the whole thing?" I'm not a lawyer, and I can't give legal advice, but some Google Android apps include open source attributions using this interpretation. [Others also agree with it](https://www.quora.com/Does-the-MIT-license-require-attribution-in-a-binary-only-distribution). But, again, the copyright notice redistribution is not the primary motivation for the dual-licensing. It's stronger protections to licensees and better interoperation with the wider Rust ecosystem. # How? To do this, get explicit approval from each contributor of copyrightable work (as not all contributions qualify for copyright, due to not being a "creative work", e.g. a typo fix) and then add the following to your README: ``` ## License Licensed under either of * Apache License, Version 2.0, ([LICENSE-APACHE](LICENSE-APACHE) or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0) * MIT license ([LICENSE-MIT](LICENSE-MIT) or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT) at your option. ### Contribution Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the work by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be dual licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions. ``` and in your license headers, if you have them, use the following boilerplate (based on that used in Rust): ``` // Copyright 2016 trust-dns Developers // // Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0, <LICENSE-APACHE or // http://apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0> or the MIT license <LICENSE-MIT or // http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT>, at your option. This file may not be // copied, modified, or distributed except according to those terms. ``` It's commonly asked whether license headers are required. I'm not comfortable making an official recommendation either way, but the Apache license recommends it in their appendix on how to use the license. Be sure to add the relevant `LICENSE-{MIT,APACHE}` files. You can copy these from the [Rust](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust) repo for a plain-text version. And don't forget to update the `license` metadata in your `Cargo.toml` to: ``` license = "MIT OR Apache-2.0" ``` I'll be going through projects which agree to be relicensed and have approval by the necessary contributors and doing this changes, so feel free to leave the heavy lifting to me! # Contributor checkoff To agree to relicensing, comment with : ``` I license past and future contributions under the dual MIT/Apache-2.0 license, allowing licensees to chose either at their option. ``` Or, if you're a contributor, you can check the box in this repo next to your name. My scripts will pick this exact phrase up and check your checkbox, but I'll come through and manually review this issue later as well. - [x] @bluejekyll

kerem closed this issue

2026-03-15 21:50:51 +03:00

kerem commented

2026-03-15 21:50:57 +03:00

Author

Owner

@bluejekyll commented on GitHub (Jan 11, 2016):

I can do this. I like the Apache license, but the MIT didn't meet my needs on IP and patent stuff. The restriction on MIT only being used with GPLv2 should be fine though.

@bluejekyll commented on GitHub (Jan 11, 2016): I can do this. I like the Apache license, but the MIT didn't meet my needs on IP and patent stuff. The restriction on MIT only being used with GPLv2 should be fine though.

kerem commented

2026-03-15 21:51:02 +03:00

Author

Owner

@emberian commented on GitHub (Jan 11, 2016):

@bluejekyll agree, the Apache is prefered on my end too

@emberian commented on GitHub (Jan 11, 2016): @bluejekyll agree, the Apache is prefered on my end too

kerem referenced this issue

2026-03-15 22:16:34 +03:00

[GH-ISSUE #197] resolver should return directly, when use a ip address as a argument? #388

kerem referenced this issue

2026-03-16 02:02:09 +03:00