From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Matthew Wilcox Subject: Re: [PATCH 2/21] advansys: version, copyright, etc Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2007 13:16:46 -0600 Message-ID: <20070726191646.GN19275@parisc-linux.org> References: <11854705771114-git-send-email-matthew@wil.cx> <46A8EE61.5070307@garzik.org> <20070726190349.GL19275@parisc-linux.org> <46A8F137.1020006@garzik.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Return-path: Received: from palinux.external.hp.com ([192.25.206.14]:47742 "EHLO mail.parisc-linux.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1761989AbXGZTQr (ORCPT ); Thu, 26 Jul 2007 15:16:47 -0400 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <46A8F137.1020006@garzik.org> Sender: linux-scsi-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: linux-scsi@vger.kernel.org To: Jeff Garzik Cc: linux-scsi@vger.kernel.org On Thu, Jul 26, 2007 at 03:08:39PM -0400, Jeff Garzik wrote: > Matthew Wilcox wrote: > >On Thu, Jul 26, 2007 at 02:56:33PM -0400, Jeff Garzik wrote: > >>Matthew Wilcox wrote: > >>>Exercise my right to change the license from dual BSD/GPL to GPL > >>What do the other copyright holders think about this? > > > >They're not contactable. > ^^ easily > > AFAIK that does not eliminate your legal obligation... No, really. They don't exist any more. Advanced System Products (first listed copyright holder) changed their name to ConnectCom Solutions (second copyright holder) and were then acquired (in part) by Initio. In any case, this is not a legal question it's an ethical question. Depending on whether you believe the copyright statment or the MODULE_LICENSE() statement, it's either licensed under the BSD license, or a disjunction of the GPL and BSD licenses. In either case, I am entitled to take the work and redistribute it under the terms of the GPL. We don't generally do it if the copyright holders are around to object, because we're nice people. But when they're gone, there's no ethical, moral, or legal reason not to. IANAL. -- "Bill, look, we understand that you're interested in selling us this operating system, but compare it to ours. We can't possibly take such a retrograde step."