linux-kernel - Re: Device Tree Blob (DTB) licence

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Date:	Tue, 5 May 2015 11:41:15 -0500
From:	Rob Herring <robherring2@...il.com>
To:	Yann Droneaud <ydroneaud@...eya.com>
Cc:	"linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	"devicetree@...r.kernel.org" <devicetree@...r.kernel.org>,
	"linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org" 
	<linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org>
Subject: Re: Device Tree Blob (DTB) licence

On Tue, May 5, 2015 at 5:05 AM, Yann Droneaud <ydroneaud@...eya.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I believe Device Tree Blob (.dtb file) built from kernel's Device Tree
> Sources (.dts, which #include .dtsi, which #include .h) using Device
> Tree Compiler (dtc) are covered by GNU General Public Licence v2
> (GPLv2), but cannot find any reference.

By default yes, but we've been steering people to dual license them GPL/BSD.

> As most .dtsi in arch/arm/boot/dts/ are covered by GPLv2, and,
> as most .h in include/dt-bindings/ are also covered by GPLv2,
> the source code is likely covered by GPLv2.
>
> Then this source code is translated in a different language (flattened
> device tree), so the resulting translation is also likely covered by
> GPLv2.
>
> So, when I'm proposed to download a .dtb file from a random vendor,
> can I require to get the associated source code ?

I believe so yes. However, you already have the "source" for the most
part. Just run "dtc -I dtb -O dts <dtb file>". You loose the
preprocessing and include structure though (not necessarily a bad
thing IMO).

Then the question is what is the license on that generated dts!

> Anyway, for a .dtb file generated from kernel sources, it's rather
> painful to look after all .dts, .dtsi, .h, to find what kind of
> licences are applicables, as some are covered by BSD, dual licensed
> (any combination of X11, MIT, BSD, GPLv2).

I imagine the includes cause some licensing discrepancies if you dug into it.

Rob
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@...r.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/