Re: [Qemu-devel] Licensing question

[Rob Landley <rob@landley.net>]

On 07/31/2013 12:19:03 AM, Stefan Weil wrote:
> Am 31.07.2013 03:50, schrieb Erik de Castro Lopo:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I have a patch I would like to submit and I am currently running it  
> past
> > my employer's legal department. The legal department has identified  
> 10
> > different licenses in the Qemu codebase and has asked about the two  
> files
> > I am modifying:
> >
> >     linux-user/syscall.c
> >     linux-user/syscall_defs.h
> >
> > For the first its easy as it is clearly marked as GPLv2+. The  
> second is
> > unmarked. Is there some blanket statement somewhere that all files  
> that
> > are not explicitly marked are under say GPLv2+?
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Erik
> 
> No, there is no such statement.
> 
> There is an agreement that files with GPL should be GPLv2+
> (not only GPLv2), but files may also use other free licenses.
> 
> In file LICENSE, it is said that QEMU as a whole is released
> under the GNU General Public License.

Which, if you don't specify, could mean GPLv1.

> Some files are copied from Linux and therefore must use
> the Linux license (usually GPLv2).
> 
> syscall_defs.h might be a copy from Linux (=> GPLv2).
> If not, the default rule from LICENSE could be applied (=> GPL).

Some directories, such as TCG, have their own LICENSE files. These are  
generally BSD-style license which are donor-compatible (but not  
receiver-compatible) with GPLv2 or later.

(If "you are obligated to include this license text verbatim, but it  
does not actually apply to the file" is an acceptable definition of  
"compatible", but that's a legal argument nobody's made in court yet so  
I'm sure you're fine. Nor has anybody recently brought up whether "the  
Software" you're obligated to include it in is just source versions or  
requires the license text to be in the binary; Android does it to be  
safe, most others don't bother.)

Rob

(Personally I look back at the days when my Commodore 64 came bundled  
with a "Disk Bonus Pack" of public domain software mostly written by  
Jim Butterfield, and going "why did we stop doing that again? Because  
awaiting hot coffee lawsuits was worse than awaiting patent troll  
lawsuits?")