handle potential akka.net licensing implications

[pjfanning]

• some recent issues and PRs have mentions about being inspired by Akka.net
• Akka.net is Apache licensed
• If we do copy/paste code from Akka.net (even if we convert it from CSharp to Scala or Java) then we need to mention this
  • affects Pekko LICENSE
  • also the variants of the LICENSE that we put in our jars (see the legal directory)
  • there is Akka.net NOTICE file so we have no implications for our NOTICE files
  • we need to put the Akka.net license header in our source files (ones that have Akka.net code)
    • example: https://github.com/akkadotnet/akka.net/blob/dev/src/core/Akka.Cluster/AutoDown.cs
    • this license header might vary between akka.net files
    • we should probably add a comment near our code that uses Akka.net derived code
• https://github.com/apache/pekko/issues?q=label%3Aakkadotnet

fyi @He-Pin

[He-Pin]

If I just looked at the issue and commit message is that a problem too?

[pjfanning]

If I just looked at the issue and commit message is that a problem too?

You can use the issue description without license implication. Commit message may be another matter.

[pjfanning]

@He-Pin You are linking Pekko issues directly to Akka.net PRs. I think this is enough to require us to update our license and source headers.

[He-Pin]

OK, I see, so the problem is we can only reference to their issue right?

[pjfanning]

@He-Pin we can use their code. It is Apache licensed.
We just need to update our licensing and source headers to mention that the code is based on Akka.net. There is no reason to close all the new issues.

[He-Pin]

akkadotnet/akka.net#8018 you can see there is no pekko too. Since they were both forked from Akka, they likely inherited the same issues. I won't link to it anymore; we'll implement it independently—just keeping an eye on the issues should be fine.

[He-Pin]

But the problem is I'm not using their code :( just saw what's problem.

[pjfanning]

But the problem is I'm not using their code :( just saw what's problem.

@He-Pin Can you reopen the issues and PRs that you closed and change them to link Akka.net issues and not PR?

[He-Pin]

OH, I see, let me do it.

[pjfanning]

So far, the code added to Pekko has not lifted directly from the akka.net code except for #3063 where the OP has given us permission to use the code in Pekko.
If anyone has any concerns that we have anything in Pekko that requires us to reference it in our Pekko license and/or in one or more source files, please get in touch.

[He-Pin]

Yes I just read the description and thanks the detail description :)