[U-Boot] U-book and GPLv3? (fwd)

Jon Smirl
2009-06-24T16:36:45Z

There is an enormous practical consideration stopping the licensing
change. u-boot has not required copyright assignment. This means that
every single person that has contributed code to u-boot needs to give
their permission for the change. This includes the authors of code
copied from the Linux kernel. It isn't good enough to just post to
the email list and ask for the change, you have to make sure that
every single person has been asked even if they aren't paying
attention to the list. If any of these people object (and some already
have objected) their contribution will need to be identified, removed
and rewritten.

This is not a comment on the merits or faults of the GPL v3. It is
just an assessment of the logistical effort required to do the change.
IMHO it would be easier to just write a new boot loader from scratch,
require copyright assignment on contributions and start off with the
GPL v3 initially.

--
Jon Smirl
jonsmirl at gmail.com