[Qemu-devel] [PATCH] ui/gtk: Fix the license information

[Qemu-devel] [PATCH] ui/gtk: Fix the license information

[Thomas Huth]

The license information in this file is very messy. A short note at
the beginning says GPL first, but the long boilerplate code then
talks about "GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.0". First,
there is no such version of the "GNU Lesser GPL", it only started with
version 2.1. In version 2.0, it was still called "GNU Library GPL"
instead. Second, you can easily get the license of this file wrong
if you only quickly glance at the long boilerplate code.

Anyway, looking at the text of the LGPL (see COPYING.LIB in the top
directory), the license clearly states in section "3." that one should
rather replace the license information with the GPL information in
such a case of a mixture instead. Thus let's clean up the confusing
statements and use the proper GPL text only.

Signed-off-by: Thomas Huth <thuth@redhat.com>
---
 ui/gtk.c | 20 ++++++++------------
 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)

diff --git a/ui/gtk.c b/ui/gtk.c
index 949b143..af7e5b2 100644
--- a/ui/gtk.c
+++ b/ui/gtk.c
@@ -6,9 +6,6 @@
  * Authors:
  *  Anthony Liguori   <aliguori@us.ibm.com>
  *
- * This work is licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL, version 2 or later.
- * See the COPYING file in the top-level directory.
- *
  * Portions from gtk-vnc:
  *
  * GTK VNC Widget
@@ -16,19 +13,18 @@
  * Copyright (C) 2006  Anthony Liguori <anthony@codemonkey.ws>
  * Copyright (C) 2009-2010 Daniel P. Berrange <dan@berrange.com>
  *
- * This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
- * modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
- * License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
- * version 2.0 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
+ * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+ * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
+ * (at your option) any later version.
  *
- * This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
  * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
  * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
- * Lesser General Public License for more details.
+ * General Public License for more details.
  *
- * You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
- * License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
- * Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301 USA
+ * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+ * along with this program; if not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
  */
 
 #define GETTEXT_PACKAGE "qemu"
-- 
1.8.3.1

Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH] ui/gtk: Fix the license information

[Daniel P. Berrangé]

On Wed, Feb 20, 2019 at 05:05:35PM +0100, Thomas Huth wrote:
> The license information in this file is very messy. A short note at
> the beginning says GPL first, but the long boilerplate code then
> talks about "GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.0". First,
> there is no such version of the "GNU Lesser GPL", it only started with
> version 2.1. In version 2.0, it was still called "GNU Library GPL"
> instead. Second, you can easily get the license of this file wrong
> if you only quickly glance at the long boilerplate code.
> 
> Anyway, looking at the text of the LGPL (see COPYING.LIB in the top
> directory), the license clearly states in section "3." that one should
> rather replace the license information with the GPL information in
> such a case of a mixture instead. Thus let's clean up the confusing
> statements and use the proper GPL text only.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Thomas Huth <thuth@redhat.com>
> ---
>  ui/gtk.c | 20 ++++++++------------
>  1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/ui/gtk.c b/ui/gtk.c
> index 949b143..af7e5b2 100644
> --- a/ui/gtk.c
> +++ b/ui/gtk.c
> @@ -6,9 +6,6 @@
>   * Authors:
>   *  Anthony Liguori   <aliguori@us.ibm.com>
>   *
> - * This work is licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL, version 2 or later.
> - * See the COPYING file in the top-level directory.

This part of the header was describing the license of the QEMU originated
code for gtk.c

> - *
>   * Portions from gtk-vnc:
>   *
>   * GTK VNC Widget
> @@ -16,19 +13,18 @@
>   * Copyright (C) 2006  Anthony Liguori <anthony@codemonkey.ws>
>   * Copyright (C) 2009-2010 Daniel P. Berrange <dan@berrange.com>
>   *
> - * This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
> - * modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
> - * License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
> - * version 2.0 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
> + * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
> + * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
> + * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
> + * (at your option) any later version.
>   *
> - * This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
> + * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
>   * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
>   * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
> - * Lesser General Public License for more details.
> + * General Public License for more details.
>   *
> - * You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
> - * License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
> - * Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301 USA
> + * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
> + * along with this program; if not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

while this part of the header was describing the license of the original
GTK-VNC code that was copied into this file.

Changing this text is not correct, because now it no longer describes
the original gtk-vnc license.

If you want to change this file you'll need the main license text for
QEMU further up, *before* the line starting "Portions from gtk-vnc:"

The bit about GTK-VNC could reasonably be simplified to

    "Portions taken from gtk-vnc under the terms of the GNU
     Lesser General Public License 2.1 or later."


Regards,
Daniel
-- 
|: https://berrange.com      -o-    https://www.flickr.com/photos/dberrange :|
|: https://libvirt.org         -o-            https://fstop138.berrange.com :|
|: https://entangle-photo.org    -o-    https://www.instagram.com/dberrange :|

Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH] ui/gtk: Fix the license information

[Markus Armbruster]

Daniel P. Berrangé <berrange@redhat.com> writes:

> On Wed, Feb 20, 2019 at 05:05:35PM +0100, Thomas Huth wrote:
>> The license information in this file is very messy. A short note at
>> the beginning says GPL first, but the long boilerplate code then
>> talks about "GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.0". First,
>> there is no such version of the "GNU Lesser GPL", it only started with
>> version 2.1. In version 2.0, it was still called "GNU Library GPL"
>> instead. Second, you can easily get the license of this file wrong
>> if you only quickly glance at the long boilerplate code.
>> 
>> Anyway, looking at the text of the LGPL (see COPYING.LIB in the top
>> directory), the license clearly states in section "3." that one should
>> rather replace the license information with the GPL information in
>> such a case of a mixture instead. Thus let's clean up the confusing
>> statements and use the proper GPL text only.
>> 
>> Signed-off-by: Thomas Huth <thuth@redhat.com>
>> ---
>>  ui/gtk.c | 20 ++++++++------------
>>  1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)
>> 
>> diff --git a/ui/gtk.c b/ui/gtk.c
>> index 949b143..af7e5b2 100644
>> --- a/ui/gtk.c
>> +++ b/ui/gtk.c
>> @@ -6,9 +6,6 @@
>>   * Authors:
>>   *  Anthony Liguori   <aliguori@us.ibm.com>
>>   *
>> - * This work is licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL, version 2 or later.
>> - * See the COPYING file in the top-level directory.
>
> This part of the header was describing the license of the QEMU originated
> code for gtk.c
>
>> - *
>>   * Portions from gtk-vnc:
>>   *
>>   * GTK VNC Widget
>> @@ -16,19 +13,18 @@
>>   * Copyright (C) 2006  Anthony Liguori <anthony@codemonkey.ws>
>>   * Copyright (C) 2009-2010 Daniel P. Berrange <dan@berrange.com>
>>   *
>> - * This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
>> - * modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
>> - * License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
>> - * version 2.0 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
>> + * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
>> + * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
>> + * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
>> + * (at your option) any later version.
>>   *
>> - * This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
>> + * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
>>   * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
>>   * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
>> - * Lesser General Public License for more details.
>> + * General Public License for more details.
>>   *
>> - * You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
>> - * License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
>> - * Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301 USA
>> + * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
>> + * along with this program; if not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
>
> while this part of the header was describing the license of the original
> GTK-VNC code that was copied into this file.
>
> Changing this text is not correct, because now it no longer describes
> the original gtk-vnc license.
>
> If you want to change this file you'll need the main license text for
> QEMU further up, *before* the line starting "Portions from gtk-vnc:"

No.  LGPL permits derived works to be licensed under GPL.
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#AllCompatibility

Keeping the separate historical boiler-plate may feel polite.  But to
figure out what exactly is LGPLed, you'd have to dig through history
anyway.  So all it accomplishes is providing a hint that somewhere in
history something could possibly be found that's still LGPLed and still
useful.

> The bit about GTK-VNC could reasonably be simplified to
>
>     "Portions taken from gtk-vnc under the terms of the GNU
>      Lesser General Public License 2.1 or later."

Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH] ui/gtk: Fix the license information

[Daniel P. Berrangé]

On Wed, Feb 20, 2019 at 06:03:09PM +0100, Markus Armbruster wrote:
> Daniel P. Berrangé <berrange@redhat.com> writes:
> 
> > On Wed, Feb 20, 2019 at 05:05:35PM +0100, Thomas Huth wrote:
> >> The license information in this file is very messy. A short note at
> >> the beginning says GPL first, but the long boilerplate code then
> >> talks about "GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.0". First,
> >> there is no such version of the "GNU Lesser GPL", it only started with
> >> version 2.1. In version 2.0, it was still called "GNU Library GPL"
> >> instead. Second, you can easily get the license of this file wrong
> >> if you only quickly glance at the long boilerplate code.
> >> 
> >> Anyway, looking at the text of the LGPL (see COPYING.LIB in the top
> >> directory), the license clearly states in section "3." that one should
> >> rather replace the license information with the GPL information in
> >> such a case of a mixture instead. Thus let's clean up the confusing
> >> statements and use the proper GPL text only.
> >> 
> >> Signed-off-by: Thomas Huth <thuth@redhat.com>
> >> ---
> >>  ui/gtk.c | 20 ++++++++------------
> >>  1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)
> >> 
> >> diff --git a/ui/gtk.c b/ui/gtk.c
> >> index 949b143..af7e5b2 100644
> >> --- a/ui/gtk.c
> >> +++ b/ui/gtk.c
> >> @@ -6,9 +6,6 @@
> >>   * Authors:
> >>   *  Anthony Liguori   <aliguori@us.ibm.com>
> >>   *
> >> - * This work is licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL, version 2 or later.
> >> - * See the COPYING file in the top-level directory.
> >
> > This part of the header was describing the license of the QEMU originated
> > code for gtk.c
> >
> >> - *
> >>   * Portions from gtk-vnc:
> >>   *
> >>   * GTK VNC Widget
> >> @@ -16,19 +13,18 @@
> >>   * Copyright (C) 2006  Anthony Liguori <anthony@codemonkey.ws>
> >>   * Copyright (C) 2009-2010 Daniel P. Berrange <dan@berrange.com>
> >>   *
> >> - * This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
> >> - * modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
> >> - * License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
> >> - * version 2.0 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
> >> + * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
> >> + * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
> >> + * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
> >> + * (at your option) any later version.
> >>   *
> >> - * This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
> >> + * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
> >>   * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
> >>   * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
> >> - * Lesser General Public License for more details.
> >> + * General Public License for more details.
> >>   *
> >> - * You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
> >> - * License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
> >> - * Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301 USA
> >> + * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
> >> + * along with this program; if not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
> >
> > while this part of the header was describing the license of the original
> > GTK-VNC code that was copied into this file.
> >
> > Changing this text is not correct, because now it no longer describes
> > the original gtk-vnc license.
> >
> > If you want to change this file you'll need the main license text for
> > QEMU further up, *before* the line starting "Portions from gtk-vnc:"
> 
> No.  LGPL permits derived works to be licensed under GPL.
> https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#AllCompatibility

I wasn't debating that.

> Keeping the separate historical boiler-plate may feel polite.  But to
> figure out what exactly is LGPLed, you'd have to dig through history
> anyway.  So all it accomplishes is providing a hint that somewhere in
> history something could possibly be found that's still LGPLed and still
> useful.

I'm just saying that after this patch is applied, the text in the header
is misleading. It is suggesting that the GTK-VNC code that was copied
was under the GPLv2, where as it was actually under the LGPLv2 originally.

> > The bit about GTK-VNC could reasonably be simplified to
> >
> >     "Portions taken from gtk-vnc under the terms of the GNU
> >      Lesser General Public License 2.1 or later."

Regards,
Daniel
-- 
|: https://berrange.com      -o-    https://www.flickr.com/photos/dberrange :|
|: https://libvirt.org         -o-            https://fstop138.berrange.com :|
|: https://entangle-photo.org    -o-    https://www.instagram.com/dberrange :|