From: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
To: "Luis R. Rodriguez" <mcgrof@frijolero.org>
Cc: rusty@rustcorp.com.au, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
Keith Packard <keithp@keithp.com>,
Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org>,
David Woodhouse <dwmw2@infradead.org>,
Stephen Hemminger <shemminger@vyatta.com>,
"John W. Linville" <linville@tuxdriver.com>,
Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] module: Clarify GPL-Compatible is OK
Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2012 17:27:23 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20120407002723.GA14568@kroah.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <1333757482-16204-1-git-send-email-mcgrof@frijolero.org>
On Fri, Apr 06, 2012 at 05:11:22PM -0700, Luis R. Rodriguez wrote:
> From: "Luis R. Rodriguez" <mcgrof@frijolero.org>
>
> While the kernel is GPLv2 individual files and modules have
> historically been allowed to be:
>
> * Dual BSD/GPL
> * Dual MIT/GPL
> * Dual MPL/GPL
>
> This is done for several reasons but most importantly to be able to
> share between Linux and permissive licensed Operating Systems such
> as the BSDs.
>
> You do not need to make dual licenses when licenses are compatible
> with each other, and in fact at times this can confuse developers / legal.
> This has been well documented by SFLC through their "Maintaining
> Permissive-Licensed Files in a GPL-Licensed Project: Guidelines for
> Developers" [0] which was inspired by the ambiguity of the MadWifi
> Project's Dual BSD/GPL license tradition. The list of GPL-Compatible
> licenses can be found on the FSF's website [1].
>
> Lets help move out of the stone age and instead of extending this list
> with more permissive licenses add a simple "GPL-Compatible" tag for use by
> any GPL-Compatible licensed module. Given that vendors tend to grep existing
> drivers for what they do also change all drivers to use the simple tag but
> leave in place the old checks in case external drivers are using this. Moving
> forward GPL-Compatible modules should rely on this simple new tag instead
> of using the old tags or looking to add a new GPL-Compatible text descring
> that license.
>
> [0] http://www.softwarefreedom.org/resources/2007/gpl-non-gpl-collaboration.html
> [1] http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#GPLCompatibleLicenses
>
> Cc: Keith Packard <keithp@keithp.com>
> Cc: Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org>
> Cc: David Woodhouse <dwmw2@infradead.org>
> Cc: Rusty Russell <rusty@rustcorp.com.au>
> Cc: Stephen Hemminger <shemminger@vyatta.com>
> Cc: "John W. Linville" <linville@tuxdriver.com>
> Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
> Cc: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
> Signed-off-by: Luis R. Rodriguez <mcgrof@frijolero.org>
Acked-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2012-04-07 0:27 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 20+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2012-04-07 0:11 [PATCH] module: Clarify GPL-Compatible is OK Luis R. Rodriguez
2012-04-07 0:27 ` Greg Kroah-Hartman [this message]
2012-04-07 0:28 ` Al Viro
2012-04-07 0:57 ` Luis R. Rodriguez
2012-04-07 0:36 ` Linus Torvalds
2012-04-07 0:51 ` Luis R. Rodriguez
2012-04-07 1:02 ` Luis R. Rodriguez
2012-04-08 12:42 ` Arend van Spriel
2012-04-07 2:49 ` Ted Ts'o
2012-04-07 3:01 ` Luis R. Rodriguez
2012-04-07 21:15 ` Ted Ts'o
2012-04-08 0:52 ` Luis R. Rodriguez
2012-04-08 14:57 ` Alan Cox
2012-04-08 16:06 ` Luis R. Rodriguez
2012-04-08 17:12 ` Alan Cox
2012-04-08 20:23 ` Ted Ts'o
2012-04-07 19:03 ` Alan Cox
2012-04-08 12:49 ` Arend van Spriel
2012-04-08 22:50 ` Dan Williams
2012-05-07 2:39 ` Rusty Russell
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