Re: [PATCH v2] docs: Convert the Speakup guide to rst

[Samuel Thibault <samuel.thibault@ens-lyon.org>]

Jonathan Corbet, le mar. 01 juin 2021 16:18:46 -0600, a ecrit:
> The problem is that the kernel docs, when built, include a great deal of
> code and text taken directly from the kernel source.  The built docs are
> thus a derived product of the kernel and the result needs to carry a
> GPL-compatible license.

Ah...

> I've spent some time talking with lawyers about
> this, and they have confirmed that view of things.

Yes, sure.

> As a standalone .txt file there is probably no legal problem, but that
> changes as soon as you bring it into RST TOC tree.

Yes.

> >> What are the chances that we can get the authors to agree on a change to
> >> a GPL-compatible license for this file?
> >
> > I don't know about Collins' opinion on this, Cc-ing him with the latest
> > mail my archives know for him (which dates 2008...)
> >
> > The copyright "the Speakup Team" is a more complex thing to look for.
> 
> Do you have a history of contributors to the file in its previous home?

Checking more closely, it seems we have it. The detail is in
git@github.com:linux-speakup/speakup.git in ./doc/spkguide.txt, but that
seems relatively simple:

- The initial import of the file (bddef0d280cd) wears only the Gene
  Collins copyright notice.
- I made some changes and added my copyright notice.
- Christopher Brannon (now in Cc) made various changes and added the
  "the Speakup Team" copyright notice.
- William Hubbs (now in Cc) made some changes.
- Steve Holmes (now in Cc) added one sentence.

So we'd need Gene's, Christopher's, William's, and Steve's ack on adding
the GPL alternative to the GFDL-1.2 licence.

Samuel