Following today's AFS Technology Workshop session many participants met via Zoom to discuss the proposal to dual-license portions of the OpenAFS source tree required to build the Linux kernel module under both the IBM Public License 1.0 and GPLv2. The following preliminary conclusions were reached:
* Follow up discussions on re-licensing will occur on the
[email protected] mailing list. The Reply-To on this e-mail
has been set accordingly. Please join the [email protected]
mailing list to participate in the discussions.
https://lists.openafs.org/mailman/listinfo/openafs-devel
* The target will be re-licensing of the minimal source code set
necessary to produce a GPLv2 kernel module. There are members of
the community (myself included) that will object to re-licensing BSD
or MIT licensed contributions as GPLv2 unless doing so is required.
* Cheyenne Willis pointed the group at the LWN article "Relicensing:
what's legal and what's right"
https://lwn.net/Articles/247872/
* Simon Wilkinson referenced
https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/process/license-rules.html
* We discussed the re-licensing of the Sun RPC code which was included
by IBM in OpenAFS 1.0 but is not covered by the IBM Public License 1.0.
https://lwn.net/Articles/319648/
https://spot.livejournal.com/315383.html
https://github.com/krb5/krb5/commit/b61c02cc3fb9f5309dd43b4c61ec76465d8b2263
Based upon the discussions I have pushed to openafs gerrit a change
to apply the new Oracle 3-clause BSD license to OpenAFS on the
condition that IBM and all contributors that modified the affected
files agree.
https://gerrit.openafs.org/#/c/14640/
* Subsequent to IBM publishing the revised IBM DeveloperWorks OpenAFS
1.0 dual-licensed version, I have agreed to seek the assistance of
the Software Freedom Law Center in drafting appropriate Contributor
License Agreements (CLAs) for individuals and organizations to
execute. The CLAs will be scoped to the set of files necessary to
build a "Dual IPL20 and GPLv2" kernel module.
* It is proposed that the CLAs be maintained by the OpenAFS Foundation
or the Software Freedom Law Center.
In order to narrow the scope of work the contributors that are known to
have contributed tens or hundreds of commits to the necessary source
files will be approached to execute CLAs first.
The re-licensing of the the Sun RPC sources will be performed in
parallel with the relicensing of the Linux kernel sources. As soon as
the necessary CLAs are obtained for the Sun RPC sources, the relicensing
of those files to 3-clause BSD can be merged.
Gerrit will be modified to contain an additional column to record
acceptance of GPLv2 and IPL10 dual licensing for new submissions. A
list of source files that must remain dual licensed will be maintained
in the source tree. The addition and removal of source files from the
Linux kernel build will require modification of this list.
Although the initial work will be performed on the "master" branch, it
is the hope of many that dual licensing can be back-ported to the
existing stable releases.
To the other participants, if I made any mistakes or omissions in this
summary, please follow up with corrections.
Thank you for all that have expressed interest in a GPL licensed OpenAFS
kernel module.
Jeffrey Altman
On 6/10/2021 7:23 PM, Todd DeSantis ([email protected]) wrote:
>
> Greetings OpenAFS Community
>
> I would like to introduce an OpenAFS community proposal to change the
> licensing terms for future releases of the kernel components of
> OpenAFS. Today OpenAFS is exclusively available under the IBM Public
> License (IPL-1.0). Due to OpenAFS having some Linux kernel modules,
> the IPL is not optimal for development and consumption of the kernel
> code on Linux. We're proposing that, going forward, OpenAFS kernel
> components should be available under a dual licensing model - the GNU
> GPL Version 2 and the existing IPL-1.0. Based on a recent request from
> the community, IBM is already in support of and working toward the
> dual licensing change for the OpenAFS kernel components.
>
> This change has many benefits for the OpenAFS community as well as
> users of OpenAFS in Linux environments. Having the OpenAFS kernel code
> available under the GNU GPLv2 will provide the appropriate licensing
> model for the OpenAFS Linux kernel code that meets current Linux
> kernel licensing standards. The time has come to institute this change
> and your agreement and support is needed.
>
> *Among the many benefits of OpenAFS kernel components under the GPLv2
> include: *
>
> * Avoidance of tainting Linux kernels when OpenAFS kernel components
> are installed
> * Ability to leverage modern Linux kernel features
> * Opportunity to distribute OpenAFS kernel modules in Linux
> distributions
> * Hosting of OpenAFS kernel support on POWER architecture
>
>
> *In order to realize the advantages of the dual-licensing model for
> the OpenAFS kernel components, the following items need to be addressed: *
>
> * Identify what OpenAFS source code needs to be licensed under the
> dual licensing model - the GNU GPL Version 2 and the existing IPL-1.0.
> * Obtain agreement from all OpenAFS code Copyright holders to
> dual-license their code contributions under the GPLv2 and IPL-1.0.
> This will be accomplished with a new OpenAFS Contributors License
> Agreement (CLA) and Corporate Contributors License Agreement
> (CCLA) to be drafted and used for this effort.
> * Clean-room code module replacements in situations where Copyright
> holders cannot be found or will not agree to the licensing change
> * Annotate each OpenAFS source file with the appropriate GPLv2 and
> IPL-1.0 notices.
> * Add MODULE_LICENSE("GPL and additional rights"); to the OpenAFS
> kernel source files and other technical code updates.
>
>
> We will have a discussion on the Dual Licensing effort during the AFS
> Technologies Workshop -- June 14th through June 16th via a Virtual
> Workshop during the "IBM Status Update" session on Tuesday, June 15th
> in the 10:15 to 10:45 slot.We may also have a BOF session on this
> subject later on Tuesday or Wednesday during the Workshop.
>
> Here's a link to the AFS Technologies Workshop page:
> _https://workshop.openafs.org/afsbpw21/_
> <https://workshop.openafs.org/afsbpw21/>
>
> The OpenSSL Community went through a similar license activity a few
> years back and here is a pointer to that site.
> _
> __https://www.openssl.org/blog/blog/categories/license/_
> <https://www.openssl.org/blog/blog/categories/license/>
>
> A link to the CLA details that the OpenSSL effort used is
>
> https://www.openssl.org/policies/cla.html
> <https://www.openssl.org/policies/cla.html>
>
> The OpenAFS Community might do something like this as well to help
> group contributors with contributions and what area of the code it
> hits, etc.
>
> Please use the [email protected]_
> <mailto:[email protected]>mailing list as the list to be used
> for discussions regarding re-licensing.
>
> Thanks for your help and support on this important initiative.
>
> Todd DeSantis
> IBM AFS Support
> OpenAFS Foundation Board Member
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