Re: btrfs-progs license

[Stefano Babic <sbabic@denx.de>]

Hi Neal,

On 08.12.20 13:37, Neal Gompa wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 8, 2020 at 4:52 AM Stefano Babic <sbabic@denx.de> wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I hope I am not OT. I ask about license for btrfs-progs and related
>> libraries. I would like to use libbtrfsutils in a FOSS project, but this
>> is licensed under GPLv3 (even not LGPL) and it forbids to use it in
>> projects where secure boot is used.
>>
> 
> Please don't use this phrasing, because it's not true. There is no
> circumstance where the GNU version 3 licenses (GPL, LGPL, AGPL) are
> incompatible with secure boot environments. What you're talking about
> is an additional restriction *you* are imposing in which you don't
> want to make it possible for the software to be user-serviceable for
> any purpose. That's not the same thing as "secure boot".
> 

Sorry for misunderstanding, you're right - but you have perfectly
understood what I meant ;-)

>> Checking code in btrfs-progs, btrfs is licensed under GPv2 (fine !) and
>> also libbtrfs. But I read also that libbtrfs is thought to be dropped
>> from the project. And checking btrfs, this is linked against
>> libbtrfsutils, making the whole project GPLv3 (and again, not suitable
>> for many industrial applications in embedded systems).
>>
>> Does anybody explain me the conflict in license and if there is a path
>> for a GPLv2 compliant library ?
>>
> 
> I'm not sure there is a conflict, but there are relatively few authors
> of the libbtrfsutil code, so we could get the license downgraded to
> LGPLv2+ instead of being LGPLv3+.

This would be really nice !

Regards,
Stefano


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