I see the same problem lots with code that claims to be MIT and BSD licensed, but either doesn't include the license, or includes the license template with the placeholders for the year and copyright holder unfilled.
It makes complying with the license impossible.
Re:Debian and the PHP license
by tedunangst on Tuesday July 29, 2014 @02:08PM
(#8103806)
In the 90s it was common to see licence text refer to "the regents" even when that made no sense, but that's faded away as actual template licence text, meant to be used as a template, has become readily available.
I don't think it affected the interpretation much. If the author and the regents disclaim the warranty, and there are no regents, the straightforward interpretation is that the author disclaims warranty.
Re:Debian and the PHP license
by ubernostrum on Tuesday July 29, 2014 @04:58PM
(#8104981)
"The Regents" was likely an artifact of advertising clause, not of people being lazy filling in placeholders in the license.
(I believe quite a few bits of Windows will still, thanks to advertising clause, remind you about the Regents of the University of California)
The problem is that lots of other projects need to apply some license, and just for simplicity say "I'll just apply the PHP license," even though it makes absolutely no sense for anything but the PHP project itself.