Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1756104AbXKCQgl (ORCPT ); Sat, 3 Nov 2007 12:36:41 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1754744AbXKCQge (ORCPT ); Sat, 3 Nov 2007 12:36:34 -0400 Received: from main.gmane.org ([80.91.229.2]:46835 "EHLO ciao.gmane.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1754697AbXKCQgd (ORCPT ); Sat, 3 Nov 2007 12:36:33 -0400 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org From: Remigiusz Modrzejewski Subject: Re: Policy on dual licensing? Date: Sat, 3 Nov 2007 16:36:04 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: References: X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: host-ip38-174.crowley.pl X-Posting-License: http://ppl.7thguard.net/PPL X-Homesite: http://lrem.net/ User-Agent: slrn/0.9.8.1 (Linux) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1564 Lines: 27 Krzysztof Halasa wrote: > It doesn't make sense in general. Being derived from *BSD may mean > only a tiny fragment comes from *BSD. I can't see any valid reason > to force/ask the author to publish his/her code under BSD > (GPL + BSD = BSD) instead of GPLv2 as used by the whole Linux. > > There are exceptions, of course - if you take a *BSD project and > include it with no/minor changes it makes sense to use BSD licence, > because we really want to cooperate, and because we don't have to > fear "evil corporations" taking our code (because it's mostly not > "ours"). Well, you've shown both poles, where the correct licensing decision seems quite obvious. But in between there lies the great gray area, where it's not so clear. Lets say you take a BSD driver and perform a medium sized hack, eg add a new feature and include it into Linux kernel. Now you've got code that has been mainly of appropriate *BSD authorship, but with a reason for them (and the "evil corporations") to want the change ported back. The final choice *is* to be made by the author, it's the right way to be. What I suggest is to encourage authors to share back, best done by maintainer asking to do so just before committing. -- Remigiusz 'lRem' Modrzejewski Contact: http://lrem.net/pages/view/about Feel free to correct my English. - 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/