On 04/14/2014 09:23 AM, Eric Blake wrote: > On 04/14/2014 09:18 AM, Tom Musta wrote: >> >> I am trying to make sense of the contents of the QEMU LICENSE file which >> states this: >> >> "1) QEMU as a whole is released under the GNU General Public License, >> version 2." >> >> but then later states this: >> >> "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*." >> >> I am working on getting libdecnumber source with GPLv2 licensing, but the >> previous >> paragraph suggests that it will not be accepted either. > > Most likely, your changes to libdecnumber will give it GPLv2+ licensing, > since the library is already available under GPLv3+ and you would just > be widening that to also include GPLv2 (in other words, your change > would implicitly be GPLv2+ because it already has the "or later" built > in by the fact that the library is already available under a later > license). But if you were to succeed at releasing libdecnumber as > GPLv2-only instead of GPLv2+ (I don't recommend attempting that, but for > the sake of argument), then you would modify that part of the LICENSE > file statement to add libdecnumber to the set of files which come from > GPLv2-only sources.
[I hit send too soon...] The point of the two statements is that qemu as a whole is FORCED to be GPLv2-only, because of its use of GPLv2-only sources; but that we are TRYING to be nice to other users by minimizing the use of GPLv2-only, and instead demand that MOST new submissions are compatible with GPLv2+ (that also includes submissions that are more permissive, such as BSD licensed submissions). The key point is that we want a GPLv3+ project to have the option of copying a maximal set of files from qemu without violating licenses - this is possible for GPLv2+ files but not for GPLv2-only files. -- Eric Blake eblake redhat com +1-919-301-3266 Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org
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