Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S936654AbXHGVsV (ORCPT ); Tue, 7 Aug 2007 17:48:21 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S965933AbXHGV0q (ORCPT ); Tue, 7 Aug 2007 17:26:46 -0400 Received: from SMTP.andrew.cmu.edu ([128.2.10.83]:38151 "EHLO smtp.andrew.cmu.edu" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S965917AbXHGV0o (ORCPT ); Tue, 7 Aug 2007 17:26:44 -0400 From: Jeremy Maitin-Shepard To: Dave Jones Cc: Linux Kernel Subject: Re: GPL / MPL license issues. In-Reply-To: <20070807202758.GA1937@redhat.com> (Dave Jones's message of "Tue\, 7 Aug 2007 16\:27\:58 -0400") References: <20070807202758.GA1937@redhat.com> User-Agent: Gnus/5.110006 (No Gnus v0.6) Emacs/22.0.990 (gnu/linux) X-Habeas-SWE-9: mark in spam to . X-Habeas-SWE-8: Message (HCM) and not spam. Please report use of this X-Habeas-SWE-7: warrant mark warrants that this is a Habeas Compliant X-Habeas-SWE-6: email in exchange for a license for this Habeas X-Habeas-SWE-5: Sender Warranted Email (SWE) (tm). The sender of this X-Habeas-SWE-4: Copyright 2002 Habeas (tm) X-Habeas-SWE-3: like Habeas SWE (tm) X-Habeas-SWE-2: brightly anticipated X-Habeas-SWE-1: winter into spring Date: Tue, 07 Aug 2007 17:26:35 -0400 Message-ID: <877io711f8.fsf@jbms.ath.cx> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1534 Lines: 35 Dave Jones writes: > There are a number of files in the kernel that have in their > headers a notice that the file is under the Mozilla Public License, > which alone, is incompatible with the GPL. > This itself is fine, as long as the resulting code claims > to be Dual MPL/GPL, however there are a few cases where this > doesn't seem to be happening. All of the files that you cite include a notice that they are licensed under the GPLv2, in addition to the MPL. There is no reason that MODULE_LICENSE needs to indicate that some portions of code may also be available under an alternative license. Furthermore, for some modules that contain both code licensed under the GPLv2 exclusively, and code dual-licensed under both the GPLv2 and the MPL, it would be incorrect to state that the combined work is dual-licensed under the GPLv2 and the MPL. As far as providing a convenience to users, I can't see why anyone would really care that a particular module includes some code that may be licensed under the MPL as well. Anyone actually looking through the kernel for code to incorporate into an MPL project would surely read the copyright headers at the top of the source files, rather than try to use the MODULE_LICENSE notes. [snip] -- Jeremy Maitin-Shepard - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/