Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH v2] compiler: Swap 'public domain' header for license

[Eric Blake]

On 09/23/2016 09:18 AM, Felipe Franciosi wrote:
> As discussed on the list [1], having a comment stating that this file
> is "public domain" is arguably wrong and not legally binding. This patch
> replaces that comment with a clear GPLv2+ license, as proposed in [2].
> 
> [1] http://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2016-09/msg06151.html
> [2] http://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2016-09/msg06217.html
> 
> Signed-off-by: Felipe Franciosi <address@hidden>
> ---
> v2: Add a GPLv2+ statement after removing 'public domain' text.
>     Amend the commit message and text to reflect it.
> 
>  include/qemu/compiler.h | 6 +++++-
>  1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

I personally think that calling out [L]GPL without also asserting
copyright is awkward (the GPL works BECAUSE of copyright, so if you
don't know who is asserting the copyright, it's hard to say how you got
the copyleft permissions).  But it's not a show-stopper for me to
approve this patch, because qemu.git can be used to track contributors
regardless of what the current file contents say about any copyright
claims, and the overall project has plenty of documentation on copyright
holders.

I also think the commit message would be a LOT stronger if you
explicitly call out commit 5c026320 as the point where the file was
split off of the larger qemu-common.h, which was indeed GPLv2+ at the
time of the split (in addition to pointing to the list traffic
discussing the issue).

-- 
Eric Blake   eblake redhat com    +1-919-301-3266
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

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