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Misleading Licensing, Please Clarify

Open invy opened this issue 2 months ago • 5 comments

Dear vscode-cpptools developers, I have some difficulty to understand which license applies to which files in the repository.

  1. The LICENSE Document here states: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-cpptools/blob/0de153454aa8ec932c095fdbd50cef0915db3265/LICENSE.md?plain=1#L1-L3

  2. Some source files have following License (clearly stating, they are under MIT) : https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-cpptools/blob/0de153454aa8ec932c095fdbd50cef0915db3265/Extension/webpack.config.js#L1-L4

  3. Others, however, not, reffering to the 'root' License: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-cpptools/blob/0de153454aa8ec932c095fdbd50cef0915db3265/Extension/src/main.ts#L1-L4

  4. Binary Image Files (png, svg): Which License applies to all those Icons.

It is not clear:

  • Are those files, like in (2) under MIT oder Restrictive License? Logically, if they are referring to the 'root' License Information and they are not 'binary' Files one could imply they are under MIT? If so, please modify all such files, which are under MIT to state it clearly. If they are not under MIT, modify them accordingly.
  • Which License applies to Files in (3).
  • a) Are Extensions VSIX Files provided here on Github under Restrictive License or under MIT?
  • b) Is the Source-Archive provided under Releases under MIT License or under Restrictive License.
  • One would assume, that Source Archive provided with the Release is identical to the pre-built binaries and one could build the Extension themselves from the provided Source Archive and get identical VSIX Files.
  • Is there a Recipe to Build MIT Only Part of the extension?

Please Note, this is not the Question but rather the Bug Report, because I see the 'bug' in the way, how the License Information is conveyed.

Followup: I've build extension out of the Source Code, the resulting vsix Package does not contain Microsoft Binaries (cpptools, cpptools-srv, etc). Does this mean, the extension build from sources this way (e.g. using yarn) is licensed under MIT or does it still contain some Microsoft proprietary parts?

This however answers partly my question: Source Code and VSIX Files provider in Artifacts are in fact not identical. Building provided Source Code produces different artifacts.

It is not clear, again, from the provided License Documents.

invy avatar Oct 01 '25 06:10 invy