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On 12/15/2012 07:48 AM, Rich Freeman wrote: |
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> On Fri, Dec 14, 2012 at 10:52 PM, Richard Yao <ryao@g.o> wrote: |
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>> The systemd developers were in the middle of a transition to the LGPL |
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>> from the GPL when we forked. We inherited the code in the middle of that |
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>> transition and we see no reason to pursue a different course. Therefore, |
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>> all future changes that we make to eudev will be available under the LGPL. |
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> |
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> Not sure what the driver is to use LGPL, but in general the Gentoo |
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> social contract requires that all contributions be made under GPLv2+ |
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> or the CC BY-SAv2+. I'm sure exceptions can be made if they make |
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> sense and are aligned with Gentoo's mission (likely something that |
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> would fall on the Foundation to approve). If eudev were a non-Gentoo |
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> project then Gentoo could depend on it as long as it used any |
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> OSI-approved license. |
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> |
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> Why not just use GPLv2+? The LGPL is compatible, so this would not |
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> prevent us from merging udev changes. |
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> |
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> Not suggesting that we shouldn't use the LGPL if there is a good |
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> reason to do so that is aligned with Gentoo's mission. I would just |
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> like to understand the reason for it. |
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> |
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> Rich |
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> |
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|
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The GPLv2 would be great if we wanted to prevent systemd and others from |
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being able to make use of our work. An argument could be made that we |
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should prevent them from being able to use it. However, our work is |
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meant for all, including people with different priorities. In addition, |
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Gentoo has a long history of respecting project licenses. Given that we |
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forked from a project that was transitioning to the LGPL, it would make |
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sense to continue on that course. If that is inappropriate, then we |
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would need some kind of Gentoo-wide decision to stop licensing patches |
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in the portage tree under non-GPL licenses. This would also prevent us |
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from patching software that is under GPL-incompatible, yet OSI-approved |
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licenses, such as the CDDL. |