[Bug]: Chromium Linux build missing all license files

[richardfontana]

Version

Not applicable

Steps to reproduce

1. Download https://playwright.azureedge.net/builds/chromium/1134/chromium-linux.zip (I confirmed the same problem with build 1067)

2. Unzip chromium-linux.zip

3. Examine files, e.g.:
   $ tree
   .
   ├── chrome
   ├── chrome_100_percent.pak
   ├── chrome_200_percent.pak
   ├── chrome_crashpad_handler
   ├── chrome_sandbox
   ├── chrome-wrapper
   ├── icudtl.dat
   ├── libEGL.so
   ├── libGLESv2.so
   ├── libvk_swiftshader.so
   ├── libvulkan.so.1
   ├── locales
   │   ├── af.pak
   │   ├── af.pak.info
   │   ├── am.pak
   │   ├── am.pak.info
   │   ├── ar.pak
   │   ├── ar.pak.info
   │   ├── ar-XB.pak
   │   ├── ar-XB.pak.info
   │   ├── bg.pak
   │   ├── bg.pak.info
   │   ├── bn.pak
   │   ├── bn.pak.info
   │   ├── ca.pak
   │   ├── ca.pak.info
   │   ├── cs.pak
   │   ├── cs.pak.info
   │   ├── da.pak
   │   ├── da.pak.info
   │   ├── de.pak
   │   ├── de.pak.info
   │   ├── el.pak
   │   ├── el.pak.info
   │   ├── en-GB.pak
   │   ├── en-GB.pak.info
   │   ├── en-US.pak
   │   ├── en-US.pak.info
   │   ├── en-XA.pak
   │   ├── en-XA.pak.info
   │   ├── es-419.pak
   │   ├── es-419.pak.info
   │   ├── es.pak
   │   ├── es.pak.info
   │   ├── et.pak
   │   ├── et.pak.info
   │   ├── fa.pak
   │   ├── fa.pak.info
   │   ├── fil.pak
   │   ├── fil.pak.info
   │   ├── fi.pak
   │   ├── fi.pak.info
   │   ├── fr.pak
   │   ├── fr.pak.info
   │   ├── gu.pak
   │   ├── gu.pak.info
   │   ├── he.pak
   │   ├── he.pak.info
   │   ├── hi.pak
   │   ├── hi.pak.info
   │   ├── hr.pak
   │   ├── hr.pak.info
   │   ├── hu.pak
   │   ├── hu.pak.info
   │   ├── id.pak
   │   ├── id.pak.info
   │   ├── it.pak
   │   ├── it.pak.info
   │   ├── ja.pak
   │   ├── ja.pak.info
   │   ├── kn.pak
   │   ├── kn.pak.info
   │   ├── ko.pak
   │   ├── ko.pak.info
   │   ├── lt.pak
   │   ├── lt.pak.info
   │   ├── lv.pak
   │   ├── lv.pak.info
   │   ├── ml.pak
   │   ├── ml.pak.info
   │   ├── mr.pak
   │   ├── mr.pak.info
   │   ├── ms.pak
   │   ├── ms.pak.info
   │   ├── nb.pak
   │   ├── nb.pak.info
   │   ├── nl.pak
   │   ├── nl.pak.info
   │   ├── pl.pak
   │   ├── pl.pak.info
   │   ├── pt-BR.pak
   │   ├── pt-BR.pak.info
   │   ├── pt-PT.pak
   │   ├── pt-PT.pak.info
   │   ├── ro.pak
   │   ├── ro.pak.info
   │   ├── ru.pak
   │   ├── ru.pak.info
   │   ├── sk.pak
   │   ├── sk.pak.info
   │   ├── sl.pak
   │   ├── sl.pak.info
   │   ├── sr.pak
   │   ├── sr.pak.info
   │   ├── sv.pak
   │   ├── sv.pak.info
   │   ├── sw.pak
   │   ├── sw.pak.info
   │   ├── ta.pak
   │   ├── ta.pak.info
   │   ├── te.pak
   │   ├── te.pak.info
   │   ├── th.pak
   │   ├── th.pak.info
   │   ├── tr.pak
   │   ├── tr.pak.info
   │   ├── uk.pak
   │   ├── uk.pak.info
   │   ├── ur.pak
   │   ├── ur.pak.info
   │   ├── vi.pak
   │   ├── vi.pak.info
   │   ├── zh-CN.pak
   │   ├── zh-CN.pak.info
   │   ├── zh-TW.pak
   │   └── zh-TW.pak.info
   ├── MEIPreload
   │   ├── manifest.json
   │   └── preloaded_data.pb
   ├── PrivacySandboxAttestationsPreloaded
   │   ├── manifest.json
   │   └── privacy-sandbox-attestations.dat
   ├── product_logo_48.png
   ├── resources
   │   ├── accessibility
   │   │   ├── reading_mode_gdocs_helper
   │   │   │   ├── content.js
   │   │   │   └── gdocs_script.js
   │   │   └── reading_mode_gdocs_helper_manifest.json
   │   └── inspector_overlay
   │   ├── inspector_overlay_resources.grd
   │   └── main.js
   ├── resources.pak
   ├── v8_context_snapshot.bin
   ├── vk_swiftshader_icd.json
   ├── xdg-mime
   └── xdg-settings

Expected behavior

I expect to see multiple license files and possibly related attribution materials. For example, I'd expect to see files like the relevant version counterpart to
https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/refs/heads/main/LICENSE
but probably other stuff too.

Actual behavior

There are no license files in the referenced Chromium builds I looked at.

Additional context

At least two Chromium Linux builds distributed via the Playwright CDN do not include any license or attribution files contained in the relevant parts of the Chromium browser source code. In addition to the Chromium project license itself, Chromium is known to bundle a large number of third-party libraries under licenses including BSD-2-Clause, BSD-3-Clause, MIT, and ISC, among others. These licenses all require that copyright notices and license text be preserved when the software is redistributed. Distributing the binary without those notices does not satisfy those requirements.
I'm wondering if the build pipeline be updated to include the appropriate license files.

I am unclear on whether these Chromium builds are by Playwright or reuses of upstream Chromium project builds. If these are upstream builds, that suggests that the problem should be fixed by the Chromium project, but I thought I should start here to get clarity on that issue.

Environment

Not applicable, this is not a bug reporting a problem in Playwright functionality but rather a license compliance issue.

[richardfontana]

Update: It seems the way that third-party open source license compliance is normally handled in Chrome, and expected to be handled in Chromium, is by viewing chrome://credits in the browser. However, this seems to require some sort of specific build configuration. The Chromium builds I downloaded do not display anything in chrome://credits.

[yury-s]

Thanks for pointing this out.

We’ve identified a build configuration issue that caused chrome://credits not to be generated correctly in Playwright Chromium builds 1132–1140 (approximately Aug–Nov 2024). As a result, the credits page appears empty in those versions.

This was unintentional. We’re evaluating remediation options for the affected builds, and restoring proper access to the license texts would address the issue you’re seeing.