[BUG] USB: atm: Licensing conflict

From: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
To: Greg KH <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
Cc: LKML <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
	Kate Stewart <kstewart@linuxfoundation.org>
Subject: [BUG] USB: atm: Licensing conflict
Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2019 11:53:18 +0100 (CET)	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <alpine.DEB.2.21.1901181150090.1647@nanos.tec.linutronix.de> (raw)

The addition of SPDX identifiers to the USB subsystem introduced a license
conflict. The driver is dual licensed under GPL v2 and BSD 2 clause
according to the license texts in the file. But even the GPL v2 licensing
of this driver is ambiguous:

 * This software is available to you under a choice of one of two
 * licenses. You may choose to be licensed under the terms of the GNU
 * General Public License (GPL) Version 2, available from the file
 * COPYING in the main directory of this source tree, or the

This points to the kernel license which is GPL v2 only.

 * BSD license below:
 *
 * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
 * modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
 * are met:
 * 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
 *    notice [unmodified], this list of conditions, and the following
 *    disclaimer.
 * 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
 *    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
 *    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
 *
 * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
 * ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
 * IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
 * ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
 * FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
 * DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
 * OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
 * HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
 * LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
 * OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
 * SUCH DAMAGE.

This is clearly a BSD 2 Clause license and not BSD 3 Clause

 * GPL license :
 * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
 * modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
 * as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
 * of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

And here the license is GPL V2 or later.

Some detective work is due ...

Thanks,

	tglx