Re: [PATCH] checkpatch: Only flag FSF address, not gnu.org URL

[Alexander Duyck <alexander.h.duyck@intel.com>]

On 01/06/2014 03:52 PM, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> On 01/06/2014 03:27 PM, Greg KH wrote:
>> On Mon, Jan 06, 2014 at 03:16:24PM -0800, Alexander Duyck wrote:
>>> This change restricts the check for the for the FSF address in the GPL
>>> copyright statement so that it only flags the address, not the references to
>>> the gnu.org/licenses URL which appear in numerous drivers.
>>>
>>> So for example this statement will still return an error:
>>>   You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
>>>   along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
>>>   Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
>>>
>>> However, this statement will not return an error after this patch:
>>>   You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
>>>   along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
>>
>> Why is this paragraph needed?  The kernel does come with a copy of the
>> GPL, so it's not an issue for kernel files, right?
>>
> 
> (IANAL but...) Presumably some people might be concerned about it
> because of either patches on mailing lists or otherwise separate from
> the kernel, or if someone pulls individual files out of the kernel tree
> for another project.
> 
> 	-hpa
> 
> 

The individual files issue the main concern.  For our driver we have
bits that are often copied out without the rest of the kernel.  User
space drivers are a perfect example.  As a result we find a number of
spots where our driver files are copied and there is no COPYING file.

Thanks,

Alex