Licensing
Contents
Ethersex Relicensing Effort
Why does it matter?
Ethersex is licensed unter GPLv3, but a few parts are currently licensed as GPLv2 only or any other incompatible licesne. However, we still need to validate with the individual copyright holders that a relicense to GPLv2+ or GPLv2+v3 is okay with them.
Therefore, in an effort we're trying to identify the contributors that have contributed under the terms of GPLv2 and where the "+" part was not explicitly mentioned or any other incompatible license. If we know that all contributors agreed to a relicense, we can go ahead and flip the license of the individual source file.
How can I help?
By identifying a contributor who as contributed under the terms of GPLv2, and contacting him if he wasn't already contacted. Ask him the following questions:
- Are you okay with relicensing your contributions done under "GPLv2" to "GPLv2 or later"?
- Are you okay with relicensing your contributions done under "GPLv2" to "GPLv2 or GPLv3" ?
- Are you okay with relicensing your contributions done under "LGPLv2" to "LGPLv2 or later"?
- Are you okay with relicensing your contributions done under "LGPLv2" to "LGPLv2 or LGPLv3"?
- Are you okay with the Ethersex maintainer deciding on a future licensing change to your code, should that be necessary?
What's next?
- checkout ethersex
- run the script contrib/license-lister
- you interpret the result. check each commit that is being complained about carefully. Try to get the copyright's holder's permission. If you get it, update the whitelist in the script.
- review the list of declared copyright holders in the file.
- if you're all clear, change the license to the most liberal license possible. Document your change verbosely in the git commit log.
Current Reply List
- Please keep the list sorted by family name!
- Please only use "YES" or "NO"
Name | GPLv2->GPLv2+ | LGPLv2 -> LGPLv2+ | GPLv2 -> GPLv2+v3 | LGPLv2 -> LGPLv2+LGPLv3 | Ethersex decides |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Güntner, Maximilian | YES | YES | YES | YES | NO |
Kunze, Erik | YES | YES | YES | YES | NO |
Riegel, Roland | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO |
Current TODO List
- collect files with incompatible license.
File | License | Status |
---|---|---|
core/gui/font.c | 3-clause BSD | OK |
core/host/host.h | unknown | OK empty file - does not need a license |
core/host/util/crc16.h | no license, has to be 3-clause BSD | File is a partial copy of util/crc16.h, so we should use the 3-clause BSD for that file |
core/setbaud.h | 3-clause BSD | removed - use utils/setbaud.h from avrlibc |
hardware/ir/irmp/irmp_lib.c | GPLv2+ | OK |
hardware/lcd/s1d15g10/bunnies.h | unknown | |
hardware/lcd/ST7626/4x6.h | unknown | |
hardware/lcd/ST7626/ST7626.h | unknown | |
hardware/sram/sram.h | unknown | |
hardware/storage/sd_reader/byteordering.* | GPLv2/LGPLv2.1 | contacted 31.10.11, replied - compatible |
hardware/storage/sd_reader/fat* | GPLv2/LGPLv2.1 | contacted 31.10.11, replied - compatible |
hardware/storage/sd_reader/partition* | GPLv2/LGPLv2.1 | contacted 31.10.11, replied - compatible |
hardware/storage/sd_reader/sd_raw* | GPLv2/LGPLv2.1 | contacted 31.10.11, replied - compatible |
hardware/storage/sd_reader/sd-reader_config.h | GPLv2/LGPLv2.1 | contacted 31.10.11, replied - compatible |
protocols/bootp/bootphdr.h | unknown | |
protocols/uip/uip-conf.h | unknown | |
protocols/usb/usbconfig.h | GPLv2 or v3 | OK, see the included protocols/usb/usbdrv/License.txt |
protocols/ustream/vs1053.c | unknown | contacted 4.11.11, replied - agreed on MIT |
protocols/ustream/vs1053.h | unknown | contacted 4.11.11, replied - agreed on MIT |
services/glcdmenu/menu-interpreter/menudata-progmem.c | unknown | contacted 4.11.11, generated code - no need to license |
services/glcdmenu/menu-interpreter/menu-interpreter-config.h | unknown | contacted 4.11.11, generated code - no need to license |
to find out all the authors of a certain file, run contrib/license-lister file . e.g. contrib/license-lister protocols/bootp/bootphdr.h
- send an email to authors of source files with incompatible license
Relicensing progress
- reintegrate avr-crypto-lib from http://www.das-labor.org/wiki/AVR-Crypto-Lib
- clarify if files under BSD license need to be relicensed
- new BSD license is GPLv3 compatible http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#OrigBSD
- Adam Dunkels' uIP Stack is licensed under the BSD http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UIP_(micro_IP) https://github.com/ethersex/ethersex/blob/master/protocols/uip/uip.c#L25
- MIT/X is compatible with GPLv3
- reintegrate SD Reader library from http://www.roland-riegel.de/sd-reader/