From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.0 (2014-02-07) on aws-us-west-2-korg-lkml-1.web.codeaurora.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.8 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_00, HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS,MAILING_LIST_MULTI,SPF_HELO_NONE,SPF_PASS, URIBL_BLOCKED autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.0 Received: from mail.kernel.org (mail.kernel.org [198.145.29.99]) by smtp.lore.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 397B1C64E90 for ; Mon, 30 Nov 2020 14:52:36 +0000 (UTC) Received: from vger.kernel.org (vger.kernel.org [23.128.96.18]) by mail.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E46F4208FE for ; Mon, 30 Nov 2020 14:52:35 +0000 (UTC) Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1727760AbgK3OwU (ORCPT ); Mon, 30 Nov 2020 09:52:20 -0500 Received: from lindbergh.monkeyblade.net ([23.128.96.19]:50894 "EHLO lindbergh.monkeyblade.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1726885AbgK3OwT (ORCPT ); Mon, 30 Nov 2020 09:52:19 -0500 Received: from ms.lwn.net (ms.lwn.net [IPv6:2600:3c01:e000:3a1::42]) by lindbergh.monkeyblade.net (Postfix) with ESMTPS id B884EC0613D2; Mon, 30 Nov 2020 06:51:39 -0800 (PST) Received: from lwn.net (localhost [127.0.0.1]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by ms.lwn.net (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 5DC2A2BA; Mon, 30 Nov 2020 14:51:38 +0000 (UTC) Date: Mon, 30 Nov 2020 07:51:37 -0700 From: Jonathan Corbet To: Matthew Wilcox Cc: Thorsten Leemhuis , Christoph Hellwig , Randy Dunlap , Greg Kroah-Hartman , linux-doc@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Thomas Gleixner Subject: Re: [PATCH v3 1/3] LICENSES: Add the CC-BY-4.0 license Message-ID: <20201130075137.3b551bef@lwn.net> In-Reply-To: <20201124121109.GY4327@casper.infradead.org> References: <20201124091852.GB11695@lst.de> <04eae024-811d-d11e-b8bd-52f0dd0e225f@leemhuis.info> <20201124093658.GA13174@lst.de> <20201124121109.GY4327@casper.infradead.org> Organization: LWN.net MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Tue, 24 Nov 2020 12:11:09 +0000 Matthew Wilcox wrote: > > That's why I came up with the thought "make the text available under more > > liberal license in addition to the GPLv2 is a good idea here". I considered > > MIT, but from what I see CC-BY 4.0 is a way better choice for documentation > > that is more known to authors. > > > > And I hope others pick up the idea when they write new documentation for the > > kernel, so maybe sooner or later it's not unusual anymore. > > It's really tricky to make this work when, eg, including kernel-doc from > files which are unambiguously licensed under the GPL. As Thorsten points out, there are no such directives in this particular document. I don't really see how any such could come to be introduced; we could add a comment at the top saying that none should be added if that would help. We could also, if we saw fit, take the position that anything that has been processed through the docs build is a derived product of the kernel and must be GPL-licensed - any dual-licensing would be stripped by that act. That, too, should address this concern, I think. In general I'd rather see fewer licenses in Documentation/ than more. But Thorsten has put a lot of effort into this work; if he wants to dual-license it in this way, my inclination is to accommodate him. But that requires getting CC-BY-4.0 accepted into the LICENSES directory. (That said, I believe it should go into LICENSES/dual/ rather than preferred/). Thanks, jon