Hi Jan,

2017-03-21 11:00 GMT+01:00 Jan Kiszka <[email protected]>:

> On 2017-03-21 10:27, Claudio Scordino wrote:
> > Dear all,
> >
> > I apologize if this topic has been already discussed in list.
> >
> > I've noted that the inmate lib is licensed under GPL. Therefore, if I'm
> > not wrong, its license also affects the inmate binaries that get linked
> > to it.
> >
> > If licensing the hypervisor code under GPL is reasonable for a plethora
> > of reasons, I wonder if applying the same license for the inmate library
> > is wise or not, since it may prevent the usage of such library in an
> > industrial context where the inmate code must remain proprietary.
>
> Correct, the inmate library in its current form is not suitable for
> proprietary inmate development. We only licensed interface header of the
> hypervisor under dual GPL/BSD, not the library.
>
> I wouldn't refuse a relicensing proposal if there is a real need and
> someone has the time to drive it (hunt down all copyright holders), but
> I would also like to have a discussion about technical alternatives
> first, i.e. RTOSes that already come with permissive licenses. I
> consider Zephyr as the hottest candidate for this right now (x86
> support, consistent licensing, vivid and growing industrial community).
>

Actually, I see the problem more related to the application code (often
kept proprietary) rather than to the RTOS itself.
Even without a RTOS, in fact, the problem persists for proprietary
bare-metal applications.
Some RTOSs (e.g., ERIKA Enterprise) are open-source, but come with a
permissive license allowing static linking of proprieraty application code.

"git log" extracted 14 contributors for the inmate/lib/ code.
If you agree, I can try to contact those developers asking for a
preliminary feedback.
As a company, we definitely need a license allowing static linking of
proprietary bare-metal code against the inmate library.
The license can be similar to the one used by the ERIKA RTOS (i.e. GPL +
linking exception - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPL_linking_exception) or
an even more permessive license (e.g., BSD, MIT).

Best regards,

               Claudio

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