a naive way to check for a license file within a python package

check_package_license.py

import pkg_resources


def get_pkg_license(pkgname):
    pkgs = pkg_resources.require(pkgname)
    pkg = pkgs[0]
    try:
        lines = pkg.get_metadata_lines('METADATA')
    except:
        lines = pkg.get_metadata_lines('PKG-INFO')
    for line in lines:
        if line.startswith('License'):
            (k, v) = line.split(': ', 1)
            if v != 'UNKNOWN':
                return v
        elif line.startswith('Classifier: License'):
            a = line.split(':: ')
            return a[-1]

    return None