On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 12:56:33PM +0930, Rusty Russell wrote: > Greg KH <[email protected]> writes: > > On Thu, Jun 30, 2016 at 03:53:27PM -0700, Luis R. Rodriguez wrote: > >> copyleft-next [0] [1] is an openly evolved copyleft license, its an > >> effort to evolve copyleft without participation of the Church (TM) > >> or State (R), completley openly to the extend development and > >> discussion of copyleft-next by participants of the copyleft-next > >> project are governed by the Harvey Birdman Rule [2]. > >> > >> Even though it has been a goal of the project to be GPL-v2 compatible > >> to be certain I've asked for a clarification about what makes > >> copyleft-next GPLv2 compatible and also asked for a summary of > >> benefits. This prompted some small minor changes to make compatiblity > >> even further clear and as of copyleft 0.3.1 compatibility should > >> be crystal clear [3]. > >> > >> The summary of why copyleft-next 0.3.1 is compatible with GPLv2 > >> is explained as follows: > >> > >> Like GPLv2, copyleft-next requires distribution of derivative works > >> ("Derived Works" in copyleft-next 0.3.x) to be under the same license. > >> Ordinarily this would make the two licenses incompatible. However, > >> copyleft-next 0.3.1 says: "If the Derived Work includes material > >> licensed under the GPL, You may instead license the Derived Work under > >> the GPL." "GPL" is defined to include GPLv2. > >> > >> In practice this means copyleft-next code in Linux may be licensed > >> under the GPL2, however there are additional obvious gains for > >> bringing contributins from Linux outbound where copyleft-next is > >> preferred. To help review further I've also independently reviewed > >> compatiblity with attorneys at SUSE and they agree with the > >> compatibility. > >> > >> A summary of benefits of copyleft-next >= 0.3.1 over GPLv2 is listed > >> below, it shows *why* some folks like myself will prefer it over > >> GPLv2 for future work. > >> > >> o It is much shorter and simpler > >> o It has an explicit patent license grant, unlike GPLv2 > >> o Its notice preservation conditions are clearer > >> o More free software/open source licenses are compatible > >> with it (via section 4) > >> o The source code requirement triggered by binary distribution > >> is much simpler in a procedural sense > >> o Recipients potentially have a contract claim against distributors > >> who are noncompliant with the source code requirement > >> o There is a built-in inbound=outbound policy for upstream > >> contributions (cf. Apache License 2.0 section 5) > >> o There are disincentives to engage in the controversial practice > >> of copyleft/ proprietary dual-licensing > >> o In 15 years copyleft expires, which can be advantageous > >> for legacy code > >> o There are explicit disincentives to bringing patent infringement > >> claims accusing the licensed work of infringement (see 10b) > >> o There is a cure period for licensees who are not compliant > >> with the license (there is no cure opportunity in GPLv2) > >> o copyleft-next has a 'built-in or-later' provision > >> > >> [0] https://github.com/copyleft-next/copyleft-next > >> [1] https://lists.fedorahosted.org/mailman/listinfo/copyleft-next/ > >> [2] https://github.com/richardfontana/hbr/blob/master/HBR.md > >> [3] > >> https://lists.fedorahosted.org/archives/list/[email protected]/thread/JTGV56DDADWGKU7ZKTZA4DLXTGTLNJ57/#SQMDIKBRAVDOCT4UVNOOCRGBN2UJIKHZ > >> > >> v2: > >> > >> o extend checkpatch.pl with copyleft-next as well for > >> MODULE_LICENSE() check - as suggested by Paul Bolle. > >> > >> Cc: [email protected] > >> Cc: Richard Fontana <[email protected]> > >> Signed-off-by: Ciaran Farrell <[email protected]> > >> Signed-off-by: Christopher De Nicolo <[email protected]> > >> Signed-off-by: Luis R. Rodriguez <[email protected]> > > > > Acked-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <[email protected]> > > Adding a license here implies we accept that it's actually GPLv2 > compatible. And IANAL.
Note, at least lawyer has signed off on this. I'd like to see Richard do so as well. thanks, greg k-h
