Why are a number of the files licensed to Joyent?

[avivkeller]

I'm aware of the contribution from companies like Joyent to the Node.js project, but why are ~885 (based on a search) files individually licensed? Isn't this covered in the LICENSE at the root of the repo?

[richardlau]

Because Joyent were the original owners of Node.js. All licenses present on files at the time the project moved to the Foundation were kept as-is.

[avivkeller]

Thanks for the info, just out of curiosity, would it be worth it to remove those licenses from the individual files?

They are covered by the note in the main license:

This license applies to parts of Node.js originating from the
https://github.com/joyent/node repository:

"""
Copyright Joyent, Inc. and other Node contributors. All rights reserved.
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to
deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the
rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or
sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING
FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS
IN THE SOFTWARE.
"""

I feel that it's just extra unneeded comments for the files.

[richardlau]

No, it would not. It's unnecessary churn. Also there are legal concerns with removing it from the files.

See previous discussion in:

• Joyent Copyright still in header of many files #3926
• Updating the Copyright TSC#174, particularly Updating the Copyright TSC#174 (comment)