the license distributed with openssh is contained in a file named 'LICENCE'. the proper spelling of the word is 'LICENSE'. in the LICENCE file the word is spelled both correctly and incorrectly.
dictionary.com lists "licence" as a variant of "license" according to The American Heritage Dictionary (go check, we'll wait). It's listed as chiefly British but both variants are commonly used in Australia (and, I suspect, Canada). Inconsistent? Yes. Incorrect? No.
Both are considered correct depending on where you live. It is like whiningabout how one spells colour ('colour' vs 'color').I do feel that we should be consistant. *ALWAYS* use one or the other spelling,but I have no feelings either way which one should be used.Lets face it.. English (in it's many forms from Bastardized American tothe Queen's English) is just a horriblely scattered language.=)
Licence is the correct spelling, as used in Britian, Australia and many other parts of the world. We have no choice over the various spellings of "licence" in the file either - these are licences that we inherited from a number of developers. We do not have the legal right to change these in any way.