• [RFC] Regarding the current status of HICPP checks Summary The High Integrity C++ Coding Standard (HICPP) by Perforce has recently been moved behind a registration wall. • The original documentation links now redirect to an application form requiring email submission. • Please see:High Integrity C++ Coding Rules Concern: If the standard is no longer publicly accessible, we need to ensure that our continued hosting of these descriptions and checks doesn’t violate their copyright. • Will it be a serious problem? • Related PR / Discussion clang-tidy checks for High integrity C++ - #2 by Piotr_Padlewski [clang-tidy][NFC] Update broken HICPP documentation links by zeyi2 · Pull Request #180525 · llvm/llvm-project · GitHub The downloaded PDF, which requires a business email account to get (therefore limiting contributions to only people with a business account), has this: © 2013 Programming Research Ltd IANAL, but if the document is copyrighted my understanding is we do not have permission to copy it, fully or partially. • The same problem happens with e.g.AUTOSARandCUDAguidelines, which are publicly accessible, and we do not have checks for these rules for this reason.

Article Summaries:

  • Perforce’s High Integrity C++ Coding Standard (HICPP) has been moved behind a registration wall, with the original documentation now redirecting to an application form that requires a business email. The PDF, still copyrighted by Programming Research Ltd, includes a “Conditions of Use” clause allowing sharing of the work or parts of it provided the source is credited as “HIC++ Coding Standard as created by PRQA” and no endorsement is implied. This change raises questions about whether existing open‑source checks that reference the standard can remain hosted without infringing copyright. The discussion centers on whether the new attribution clause mitigates legal risk and what action should be taken regarding current checks.

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