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Add GPL license headers to .c and .h files
We've received permission from Espressif to add a GPL header to
the files, matching the pre-existing MODULE_LICENSE("GPL") in
sdio_sif_esp.c.
Here is a verbatim copy of the permission mail, including headers:
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for <j.w.r.degoede@gmail.com>; Sun, 09 Oct 2016 09:08:26 +0800
Subject: Re: Fwd: GPL Licensing of ESP8089 driver?
To: Hans de Goede <j.w.r.degoede@gmail.com>
References: <e273fcec-1d38-b40d-0e04-abfcdb73ebec@bloks.de>
<CAHAKi_4LMzieF8bkbSsegFLbnv4Kp9xEf3RnbVin_4jTi7XSZw@mail.gmail.com>
<1475220962639.49990@bloks.de>
<CAHAKi_4NOFMdS9vRzZXTFGhOqDphj82yqHM1x7F7eprZxCy+RA@mail.gmail.com>
<57F8969C.9060004@espressif.com>
<5c300716-c4c0-49bf-f417-0ab5ed988a5e@gmail.com>
<57F90714.5010703@espressif.com>
<befd91c1-d52f-691a-87a6-46b856ef4d4c@gmail.com>
From: Jeroen Domburg <jeroen@espressif.com>
Message-ID: <57F997E6.5060407@espressif.com>
Date: Sun, 9 Oct 2016 09:05:42 +0800
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Hi,
Yep, I asked about both. We'll license it under Apache for the firmware
and 'GPLv2 or later' for the firmware headers. Feel free to modify the
headers/code to reflect that.
Cheers,
Jeroen
On 10/09/2016 01:42 AM, Hans de Goede wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On 08-10-16 16:47, Jeroen Domburg wrote:
>> I'll ask around. I think the binaries in our SDK are released under the
>> Apache license. Any idea if that would be a good fit here as well?
>
> Yes Apache should be fine, what about the GPL v2 vs GPL v2 or later,
> I assume you also need to ask around about that ?
>
> Regards,
>
> Hans
>
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Jeroen
>>
>> On 10/08/2016 06:00 PM, Hans de Goede wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> On 08-10-16 08:47, Jeroen Domburg wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> I have just received the okay to re-license the drivers as GPL.
>>>
>>> That is great news thank you very much.
>>>
>>>> What would be the best way to propagate this decision? Is the fact
>>> that I as an Espressif employee tell you you can do this enough
>>>
>>> Yes I believe that that is enough (IANAL, but that has been sufficient
>>> in the past when re-licensing other software)
>>>
>>>> or would you rather see a re-licensed version of the original drivers
>>>> being sent to you?
>>>
>>> I do not believe that this is necessary. I will just add a commit to
>>> my git repo
>>> with updated license headers and include a verbatim copy of this mail
>>> to show
>>> that this is done with permission.
>>>
>>> One last question, which version of the GPL ? "version 2 only", or
>>> "version 2
>>> or at your option any later version" ? Note both are used in the
>>> kernel and both
>>> are fine, the latter has the advantage of not needing to ask for
>>> relicensing
>>> permission if the kernel ever jumps to a newer version (which is
>>> unlikely to
>>> ever happen).
>>>
>>> ###
>>>
>>> What about the firmware files? It would be great if we can add those
>>> to the
>>> linux-firmware repository. As said in earlier mails those do not need
>>> to be
>>> GPL, just permission to freely redistribute in some form is enough.
>>>
>>> This seems to be the standard license text used by most firmwares in
>>> linux-firmware:
>>>
>>> https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/tree/LICENCE.rockchip
>>>
>>>
>>> https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/tree/LICENCE.rtlwifi_firmware.txt
>>>
>>>
>>> etc.
>>>
>>> Basically this is the 3 clause BSD license with an explicit limited
>>> patent license
>>> (limited to "to Utilize the software ...") added.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>
>>> Hans
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>> Jeroen
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 09/30/2016 09:35 PM, Andrew Litt wrote:
>>>>> Hi Jeroen,
>>>>>
>>>>> I have been approached by a group interested in adding the ESP8089
>>>>> driver I forked and module-ified <https://github.com/al177/esp8089>
>>>>> from the Rockchip sources on github. I'm alitt on hackaday.io
>>>>> <http://hackaday.io>. We emailed briefly last year about my
>>>>> ESP8266-to-Raspberry Pi SDIO project
>>>>> <https://hackaday.io/project/8678-rpi-wifi> and was hoping that you
>>>>> could help with this request.
>>>>>
>>>>> In order to make this work, Espressif needs to allow the code to be
>>>>> GPL'd. As I mention in the forward below, the driver appears to be
>>>>> in a weird legal territory since it only contains Espressif
>>>>> copyrights, but must be tainted by the GPL via the Linux kernel for
>>>>> customers to use it in a product.
>>>>>
>>>>> Since last year there have been numerous forks and a few efforts by
>>>>> others to clean up the source and port it to new kernel APIs. There
>>>>> seems to be a lot of interest in having a maintained ESP8089 driver
>>>>> for both ESP8266+SDIO use as well as supporting tablets and other
>>>>> gadgets that ship with ESP8089 inside.
>>>>>
>>>>> I Am Not A Lawyer, but I do know it's not always an easy process to
>>>>> get legal teams to make decisions over code licensing. I think it
>>>>> would benefit Espressif to allow this code base to be put under GPL
>>>>> for compliance purposes. Additionally it would allow the community
>>>>> to maintain the driver through future kernel API changes and
>>>>> increase customer confidence in Espressif's commitment to software
>>>>> support over the long term.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks for your time,
>>>>> -Andrew
>>>>>
>>>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>>>> From: *Norbert Nemec | BLOKS.* <nn@bloks.de <mailto:nn@bloks.de>>
>>>>> Date: Fri, Sep 30, 2016 at 2:36 AM
>>>>> Subject: Re: GPL Licensing of ESP8089 driver?
>>>>> To: Andrew Litt <ajlitt@splunge.net <mailto:ajlitt@splunge.net>>
>>>>> Cc: Maxime Ripard <maxime.ripard@free-electrons.com
>>>>> <mailto:maxime.ripard@free-electrons.com>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Hi there,
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I don't see why they would avoid adding the GPL. Since it is a
>>>>> kernel driver, its only value is in combination with the kernel,
>>>>> which is GPL licensed already. Furthermore, they could also
>>>>> dual-license it with something more permissive.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Not adding a license on their side prevents anyone from legally
>>>>> using the code at all.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> If you have a good contact at Espressif, it would indeed be valuable
>>>>> if you could forward my request.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>
>>>>> Norbert
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Dr. Norbert Nemec, Software Manager
>>>>> BLOKS.
>>>>> Agnes-Pockels-Bogen 1, 80992 München, Germany
>>>>>
>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> *From:* Andrew Litt <ajlitt@splunge.net <mailto:ajlitt@splunge.net>>
>>>>> *Sent:* Friday, September 30, 2016 05:43
>>>>> *To:* Norbert Nemec | BLOKS.
>>>>> *Cc:* Maxime Ripard
>>>>> *Subject:* Re: GPL Licensing of ESP8089 driver?
>>>>>
>>>>> Hi Norbert,
>>>>>
>>>>> No, I did not get any approval from the authors before adding the
>>>>> license. The vendor (Espressif) releases their driver as a kernel
>>>>> patch to their customers. So while they are not tainting their
>>>>> driver distribution source with GPL, their customers must patch
>>>>> their kernel with the non-GPL driver in order to use this chip in a
>>>>> product which therefore taints it. I do know that Espressif
>>>>> employees are aware of my repo and have not received any negative
>>>>> feedback on this project from them.
>>>>>
>>>>> That said, I share your concerns and would be hesitant to upstream
>>>>> it without Espressif's blessing.
>>>>>
>>>>> If you like, I can forward your email to the Espressif contact I'd
>>>>> conversed with previously.
>>>>>
>>>>> -Andrew
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Thu, Sep 29, 2016 at 7:42 AM, Norbert Nemec | BLOKS. <nn@bloks.de
>>>>> <mailto:nn@bloks.de>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Hi Andrew,
>>>>>
>>>>> Free-Electrons is currently working on our behalf to get a few
>>>>> device drivers cleaned up and merged into the mainline kernel.
>>>>>
>>>>> Among those the ESP8089 driver, which is available from your
>>>>> github account
>>>>> <https://github.com/al177/esp8089>https://github.com/al177/esp8089
>>>>>
>>>>> The history shows that you did add the GPL LICENSE file to the
>>>>> repository after setting up the repository from the Rockchip Linux
>>>>> sources.
>>>>>
>>>>> Did you do this with any kind of official agreement from the
>>>>> authors? How can we be sure that the code can actually be legally
>>>>> merged into the mainline kernel?
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks for your help!
>>>>>
>>>>> Greetings,
>>>>> Norbert
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Dr. Norbert Nemec
>>>>> Software Architect
>>>>>
>>>>> BLOKS. GmbH
>>>>> Agnes-Pockels-Bogen 1
>>>>> 80992 Munich
>>>>> Germany
>>>>>
>>>>> Phone +49 89 5505 461 - 220
>>>>> <tel:%2B49%2089%205505%20461%20-%20220>
>>>>> Email nn@bloks.de <mailto:nn@bloks.de>
>>>>>
>>>>> VAT-ID: DE297724169 | Registered Court: AG Munich | HRB 215232 |
>>>>> Managing Director: Daniel Meermann
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>
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