[Buildroot] [PATCH v2 3/5] COPYING: add exception about patch licensing

[Arnout Vandecappelle <arnout@mind.be>]

On 04-02-16 00:02, Yann E. MORIN wrote:
> Luca, All,
> 
> On 2016-02-01 23:19 +0100, Luca Ceresoli spake thusly:
>> Several people have been asking what is the license of the patches
>> provided by Buildroot. COPYING is the authoritative place to state it.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Luca Ceresoli <luca@lucaceresoli.net>
>> Cc: Thomas Petazzoni <thomas.petazzoni@free-electrons.com>
>> Cc: Arnout Vandecappelle <arnout@mind.be>
> 
>> ---
>> Changes v1 -> v2:
>>  - Rewrite it almost entirely (Arnout, Thomas).
>> ---
>>  COPYING | 8 ++++++++
>>  1 file changed, 8 insertions(+)
>>
>> diff --git a/COPYING b/COPYING
>> index d511905..3596777 100644
>> --- a/COPYING
>> +++ b/COPYING
>> @@ -1,3 +1,11 @@
>> +Except for the patches provided for packages, Buildroot is licensed
>> +under the GNU General Public License, version 2.
> 
> There a gotcha here. The manual states, in chapter 12.3:
> 
>     Buildroot [is] released under the GNU General Public License,
>     version 2 or (at your option) any later version.
> 
> So, we have to clarify: is it GPLv2 or GPLV2+ ?
> 
> It's too late today for me to go digging; I'll do that tomorrow. Just
> rmind me before the end of the week if there's not feedback from my part
> on this topic.
> 
> Until then, NAK.
> 
>> +Patches provided by Buildroot for packages are released under the same
>> +license as the software that they modify.
> 
> Here's an alternative proposal, to replace both sentences:
> 
>     Buildroot comes with its own license, reproduced below.
> 
>     Buildroot also bundles patch files, which are applied to the
>     sources of the various packages. Those patches are not covered
>     by the license of Buildroot. See those individual packages for
>     their license (running 'make legal-info' after your build may
>     help).

 Much better.

 Still better:

    Buildroot comes with its own license, reproduced below.

    Buildroot also bundles patch files, which are applied to the
    sources of the various packages. Those patches are not covered
    by the license of Buildroot, but are provided under the same
    license as the software they apply to. Run 'make legal-info' to
    collect the licenses of your selected packages and their patches.

(borrowing from the update of the manual here).

 Note that this sentence doesn't clarify the issue of proprietary licenses. It's
basically still the same as what we have now in that respect.

 Regards,
 Arnout

> 
> Regards,
> Yann E. MORIN.
> 
>> +-----------------------------------------------------------------
>> +
>>  		    GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
>>  		       Version 2, June 1991
>>  
>> -- 
>> 1.9.1
>>
> 

-- 
Arnout Vandecappelle      arnout dot vandecappelle at essensium dot com
Senior Embedded Software Architect . . . . . . +32-478-010353 (mobile)
Essensium, Mind division . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.mind.be
G.Geenslaan 9, 3001 Leuven, Belgium . . . . . BE 872 984 063 RPR Leuven
LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/arnoutvandecappelle
GPG fingerprint:  7493 020B C7E3 8618 8DEC 222C 82EB F404 F9AC 0DDF