Return-path: Received: from gollum.nazgul.ch ([81.221.21.253]:5249 "EHLO gollum.nazgul.ch" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1753225AbXDEQgV (ORCPT ); Thu, 5 Apr 2007 12:36:21 -0400 Date: Thu, 5 Apr 2007 18:34:34 +0200 From: Marcus Glocker To: Michael Buesch Cc: Marcus Glocker , Jon Simola , Theo de Raadt , Stefano Brivio , Martin Langer , Danny van Dyk , Andreas Jaggi , Larry Finger , Quaker.Fang@sun.com, Johannes Berg , Joseph Jezak , John Linville , Greg kh , bcm43xx-dev@lists.berlios.de, linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org, license-violation@gpl-violations.org Subject: Re: OpenBSD bcw: Possible GPL license violation issues Message-ID: <20070405163434.GA18477@gollum.nazgul.ch> References: <200704041945.21447.mb@bu3sch.de> <20070405054107.GB7660@gollum.nazgul.ch> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii In-Reply-To: <20070405054107.GB7660@gollum.nazgul.ch> Sender: linux-wireless-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On Thu, Apr 05, 2007 at 07:41:07AM +0200, Marcus Glocker wrote: > On Wed, Apr 04, 2007 at 10:08:13PM +0200, Michael Buesch wrote: > > > I, Michael Buesch, am one of the maintainers of the GPL'd Linux > > wireless LAN driver for the Broadcom chip (bcm43xx). > > The Copyright holders of bcm43xx (which includes me) want to talk > > to you, OpenBSD bcw developers, about possible GPL license and therefore > > Copyright violations in your bcw driver. > > > > We believe that you might have directly copied code > > out of bcm43xx (licensed under GPL v2), without our explicit permission, > > into bcw (licensed under BSD license). > > There are implementation details in bcm43xx that appear exactly > > the same in bcw. These implementation details clearly don't come > > from the open specifications at bcm-specs.sipsolutions.net > > or bcm-v4.sipsolutions.net. > > > > We have always made and still make a great effort to keep our code clean > > of any Copyright issues (cleanroom design). Please make sure you also do. > > > > A few examples follow of what we think might be GPL violations. > > This list is far from being complete. > > Michael, > > I am aware that right now a lot of lines in bcw are written in a way > with a too close eye to your code. That's out of question, and I have > already informed Theo about that fact before you got in touch with > us. > > I wanted to make some quick progress (maybe too quick), and rewrite > the functions in question after seeing some first success, e.g. > receivment of first frames, which isn't the case right now. But > still, the specs for some functions are so strict, writing tons > of registers in a strict order, some parts will still look similar. > > The last thing I want is to start a license war with you guys, > and also I don't want to harm OpenBSD further with this issue. > And of course we want to solve that license issue ASAP. > > So, I am suggestion three options: > > 1. You give me some time and I try to rewrite the code > in question. We keep in touch, and maybe we can split > up both parties in freedom afterwards. > > 2. Same as option one, but if my time resources keep > shrinking like they do right now, spending weekends > in the office and I can't fix up the driver soon, > I'll drop the driver. > > 3. We don't come to a point and I'll plain drop the driver > directly, very soon. > > Waiting for your reaction. > > Regards, > Marcus OK, I decided to go for option 3: *** From: Marcus Glocker To: source-changes@cvs.openbsd.org Date: Thu, 5 Apr 2007 10:25:25 -0600 (MDT) Subject: CVS: cvs.openbsd.org: src CVSROOT: /cvs Module name: src Changes by: mglocker@cvs.openbsd.org 2007/04/05 10:25:25 Modified files: sys/conf : files sys/dev/pci : files.pci sys/dev/cardbus: files.cardbus Removed files: share/man/man4 : bcw.4 sys/dev/ic : bcw.c bcwreg.h bcwvar.h sys/dev/pci : if_bcw_pci.c sys/dev/cardbus: if_bcw_cardbus.c Log message: After been attacked by Michael Buesch because we initially were using some of their routines in the bcw driver, I decided to stop working on it. To avoid any further license chit chat I plain drop the driver. *** Happy now? It's a pleasure to see how the OpenSource community stands together, and starting public wars instead of talking directly to the people involved. Marcus -- Marcus Glocker, marcus@nazgul.ch, mglocker@openbsd.org