Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 2/2] LICENSE: clarify

[Anthony Liguori]

On Wed, Jul 31, 2013 at 1:19 AM, Paolo Bonzini <address@hidden> wrote:
> 1) The GPL says that "if the Program does not specify a version number
> of this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free
> Software Foundation".  This is not true, QEMU includes parts that are
> v2-only.
>
> 2) Provide a default for files with no licensing information.
>
> 3) It is not just hardware emulation that is under BSD license.
>
> 4) Restrict GPLv2-only contributions to user mode emulation (due to
> code from Linux) and PCI passthrough (due to code from Neocleus).

I am okay *discouraging* GPLv2 only contributions but if there's
compelling code that cannot be relicensed, I would object strongly to
rejecting it purely because it wasn't GPLv2+.

>
> 5) The rules were initially set by Fabrice but are being amended by
> other people (already in commit ee12e1f, LICENSE: There is no libqemu.a
> anymore, 2011-11-15).  Do not put words in his mouth.

I think it's better at this point to just put QEMU team.  Fabrice is
no longer associated with the project.

Regards,

Anthony Liguori

> Signed-off-by: Paolo Bonzini <address@hidden>
> ---
>  LICENSE | 15 ++++++++++-----
>  1 file changed, 10 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/LICENSE b/LICENSE
> index acae9a3..2bd2e95 100644
> --- a/LICENSE
> +++ b/LICENSE
> @@ -1,16 +1,21 @@
>  The following points clarify the QEMU license:
>
> -1) QEMU as a whole is released under the GNU General Public License
> +1) QEMU as a whole is released under the GNU General Public License,
> +version 2.
>
>  2) Parts of QEMU have specific licenses which are compatible with the
> -GNU General Public License. Hence each source file contains its own
> -licensing information.
> +GNU General Public License, version 2. Hence each source file contains
> +its own licensing information.  Source files with no licensing information
> +are released under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or (at your
> +option) any later version.
>
> -Many hardware device emulation sources are released under the BSD license.
> +As of July 2013, contributions under version 2 of the GNU General Public
> +License (and no later version) are only accepted for the following files
> +or directories: bsd-user/, linux-user/, hw/misc/vfio.c, hw/xen/xen_pt*.
>
>  3) The Tiny Code Generator (TCG) is released under the BSD license
>     (see license headers in files).
>
>  4) QEMU is a trademark of Fabrice Bellard.
>
> -Fabrice Bellard.
> +Fabrice Bellard and the QEMU team
> --
> 1.8.1.4
>
>