Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH v2] Import Linux headers for KVM and vhost

[Jan Kiszka <jan.kiszka@siemens.com>]

On 2011-05-03 23:37, Michael S. Tsirkin wrote:
> On Tue, May 03, 2011 at 12:59:06PM -0500, Anthony Liguori wrote:
>> On 05/03/2011 12:55 PM, Jan Kiszka wrote:
>>> On 2011-05-03 19:45, Anthony Liguori wrote:
>>>> On 05/03/2011 12:30 PM, Peter Maydell wrote:
>>>>> On 3 May 2011 17:48, Jan Kiszka<jan.kiszka@siemens.com>   wrote:
>>>>>> Kernel headers were automatically imported from current kvm.git,
>>>>>> 93c016c8c4. Some are not covered by any license and can be considered
>>>>>> GPLv2 with user space exception.
>>>>>
>>>>> Hmm. Can't we just get whoever owns those files to apply a suitable
>>>>> copyright and license header to them? Committing files to qemu.git
>>>>> which don't have a clear (and clearly stated) copyright/license seems
>>>>> like a bad plan to me...
>>>>
>>>> Which are the headers in question?
>>>
>>> include/asm-powerpc:	explicit GPLv2
>>> include/asm-s390:	explicit GPLv2
>>> include/asm/x86:	no license mentioned
>>> include/linux/kvm*:	no license mentioned
>>> include/linux/vhost:	no license mentioned
>>
>> Michael/Avi, can ya'll add copyrights/licenses as appropriate?
> 
> All kernel is GPLv2 with userspace exceptions.

That's not that simple. There is a lot of dual licensing, and the virtio
header are BSD 3-clause as we know.

>  The explicit GPLv2
> licenses are likely uninitentional.  So I don't really believe licenses
> are applicable in headers, we see how this creates confusion.

Well, if you state that your work on headers is not copyrighted and can
thus be used under any license, that's OK. But you can't speak for
others. And we should better avoid that such discussions escalate to any
legal authorities. :)

> 
> Just place the kernel COPYING file into the include directory?

That is one option I've already built into my latest patch version, even
for the case we come to a more explicit solution.

But one point of all this is to make life easier for those poor people
who have check a qemu source package before redistribution for included
licenses. The clearer the terms are expressed, the easier these
"unproductive" processes become. You can't imagine what activities that
vague "BSD" license of the virtio headers triggered here...

Jan

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