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I want to redistribute the compiled binaries and headers of OpenCV.

That means that I'm going to:

  1. Download some compiled release from OpenCV's Releases page.
  2. Create my own repository which will contain the downloaded binaries and headers.
  3. Add a couple of small scripts in addition to the unmodified binaries and headers.

Which license files and notes should I include into my repo if I want this repo to be available for any kinds of usage without any limitations excepting the requirement to mention me as the author in all dependent projects of this repo?

My current guess is that my repo should contain:

  1. The text of the MIT licence in the LICENCE file.
  2. Notes about my scripts (which are a kind of very minor update for the original OpenCV library) and reference to the original repo mentioned as an author.

The main concern here is whether I need to copy LICENCE and COPYRIGHT files from the OpenCV repo or I can just mention them in a free form in my README.md? Are there any strict forms to format such licensing information?

P.S. Maybe I shouldn't worry about these licenses concerns in the open-source world at all...

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    P.S. Maybe I shouldn't worry about these licenses concerns in the open-source world at all - You should!
    – wired
    May 27, 2021 at 16:58

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P.S. Maybe I shouldn't worry about these licenses concerns in the open-source world at all...

Not only should you take license concerns seriously, you are usually legally required to. Do not brush them off.

What you are doing sounds like redistribution of OpenCV (in object form) under section 4 of the Apache License. This requires you to "give any other recipients of the Work or Derivative Works a copy of this License". I would not remove or alter OpenCV's LICENSE and COPYRIGHT files.

As for licensing your scripts - you could simply paste the Expat license at the top as a comment. You could also distribute the whole thing (binaries, headers, and your scripts) under Apache 2.0. Apache is about as permissive as Expat, and this would also make the requirement of giving recipients a copy of the Apache license simpler to meet.
You are by no means required to make your scripts Apache licensed, but it's practically simpler in this case and you're already planning to put them under something similar anyway.

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  • > "... you could simply paste the Expat license at the top as a comment." Inside of the script, right? And what if I would like to put my license as a separate file? And do I need to refer the OpenCV's repo or site somehow in my license?
    – Andrei K.
    Jun 1, 2021 at 15:27
  • 1) Yes, inside the script. 2) Maybe have a LICENSE-ANDREI file? (Again, simply licensing your scripts as Apache makes this far easier on you.) 3) I don't think this is required - see section 4 of the Apache license for what is - but it wouldn't hurt to have those links in something like a README file.
    – c-x-berger
    Jun 1, 2021 at 16:24

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