David Bucciarelli wrote:
> I'm not actively working to the driver any more so I don't know the
> status of the latest sources, however (at least from a formal point of
> view) all the FX driver sources must includes the GNU license header. It
> is required by the GPL. If someone has included a patch or a file with
> another kind of license, she/he is violating GPL license of the driver
> (from a _formal_ point of view) and the copyright of the authors.
>
> I have discussed with Brian the problem of the FX driver license some
> time ago (at the time of the Mesa license shift). We both agree to not
> change the license because:
>
> 1) Only the Mesa core was going to be included in XFree so a FX Driver
> license shift wasn't required;
At the time, I did not anticipate the FX driver being incorporated
into the 3D framework of XFree86. That was a mistake.
> 2) I like the GPL;
I do too, but not for everything.
> 3) Many other people have sent me patches, bug fixes, ecc. under this
> license;
>
> Today (Miklos, is your request related to the PI's problem ?), I have
> received an email from Frank LaMonica (PrecisionInsight) asking for a
> license shift. Frank asks me to shift the FX driver from GPL to an
> XFree86's BSD style license (I think in order to include a dirver for
> the Voodoo3 in the next XFree release).
>
> I would like to left the driver under GPL because IMHO is a very good
> solution for software developed in spare time and by several people.
> However, I guess the FX driver license is becoming an obstacle for the
> XFree Voodoo3 driver so I'm ready to change the license if it is really
> required.
Good. Thank you. The bottom line really is this: the GNU license is
not acceptable for components in XFree86. If the license on the FX driver
is not changed to the new Mesa license, we will not have support for
3Dfx hardware in XFree86. That would be very unfortunate.
I think people will _really_ like the 3Dfx / X server work Daryll has
implemented.
> BTW, I'm not sure if I have the right to change the FX driver license
> (it includes the code written by other people).
As I did with Mesa, we'll explain the copyright change. If anyone
who's contributed to the driver objects to the change we'll remove
their code at their request and reimplement whatever is necessary.
NO ONE, so far, has requested their code be removed from Mesa since
the license change.
> BTW2, where can I read the XFree86's BSD license ? I have only a raw
> idea of what it is.
It's really the same as Mesa's copyright statement (as seen in all
core source files). Just replace "Mesa" with "XFree86".
-Brian
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