Re: Licensing question regarding SN9C2028 decompression (fwd)

[Hans de Goede <hdegoede@redhat.com>]

On 05/27/2009 11:43 PM, Theodore Kilgore wrote:
>
> Hans,
>
> Here is the answer which I got about the question of GPL->LGPL licensing
> in regard to the sn9c2028 decompression code.
>

Hmm,

Given that you did have contact with the original author years ago and
he also did ok it back then, and that large parts of the code are written
by you, I'm ok with moving forward changing the license to LGPL and then
committing the patch.

Regards,

Hans







> Theodore Kilgore
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Wed, 27 May 2009 13:19:46 -0400
> From: Harald <hxr@users.sourceforge.net>
> To: Theodore Kilgore <kilgota@banach.math.auburn.edu>
> Subject: Re: Licensing question regarding SN9C2028 decompression
>
> Hi Theodore,
>
> I give you permission to use the SN9C2028 code with a LGPL license.
>
> I am the current maintainer of the macam project. Most of the code that
> has been
> added in the last few years is mine. However, I did not originate the
> SN9C2028
> code. I have messed with it a lot, it may not bear much resemblance to
> the original
> code. I am sure that whatever code you based your version on has been
> modified
> as well. I doubt that you use Objective-C for example...
>
> It is likely that technically all of macam should be under LGPL anyway,
> as it works
> as a plug-in component to QuickTime. So from an "intent" perspective,
> that is how
> the macam code is used anyway. You should be able to use it the same way.
>
> I have never been able to contact the originator (mattik) of the
> project! I became admin
> through an intermediate admin (dirkx). We're all three admins, but
> neither of the others
> have contributed anything in the last 5 years.
>
> I hope this helps,
> Harald
>
>
> On May 24, 2009, at 13:40, Theodore Kilgore wrote:
>
>>
>> Harald,
>>
>> Right now I am working on putting streaming support for the SN9C2028
>> cameras (supported by libgphoto2/camlibs/sonix as still cameras) into
>> the Linux kernel, as part of linux/drivers/media/video/gspca. In doing
>> so, there is a licensing conflict, as follows:
>>
>> The Linux kernel is of course GPL licensed, as we are aware. However,
>> the philosophy of what the kernel is supposed to do with things like
>> video devices is, it takes care of creating a device dev/video and it
>> takes care of basic infrastructural things such as how to talk to the
>> camera, to initialize it, to turn it off, to tell it to stream, and to
>> detect and save packets and to construct frames.
>>
>> The code for things like decompression has been deliberately moved
>> away from the kernel code, and the idea is to put all that stuff into
>> a library called libv4l, which then provides a unified interface for
>> userspace streaming apps.
>>
>> The problem is, the decompression code would need to go into part of
>> libv4l, namely libv4lconvert. And the license for libv4l and
>> everything in it is LGPL, not GPL.
>>
>> As the originator of the decompression function for the Sonix cameras,
>> are you willing to give permission for taking my version of the code
>> from GPL to LGPL? Or can you suggest some other appropriate course of
>> action?
>>
>> Theodore Kilgore
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