Messages in this thread | | | Date | Fri, 6 Apr 2012 17:27:23 -0700 | From | Greg Kroah-Hartman <> | Subject | Re: [PATCH] module: Clarify GPL-Compatible is OK |
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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>
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