linux-kernel - Re: [BUG] USB: atm: Licensing conflict

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Date:   Mon, 21 Jan 2019 09:01:39 +0100
From:   Greg KH <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>
To:     Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>
Cc:     LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        Kate Stewart <kstewart@...uxfoundation.org>
Subject: Re: [BUG] USB: atm: Licensing conflict

On Fri, Jan 18, 2019 at 11:53:18AM +0100, Thomas Gleixner wrote:
> The addition of SPDX identifiers to the USB subsystem introduced a license
> conflict. The driver is dual licensed under GPL v2 and BSD 2 clause
> according to the license texts in the file. But even the GPL v2 licensing
> of this driver is ambiguous:
> 
>  * This software is available to you under a choice of one of two
>  * licenses. You may choose to be licensed under the terms of the GNU
>  * General Public License (GPL) Version 2, available from the file
>  * COPYING in the main directory of this source tree, or the
> 
> This points to the kernel license which is GPL v2 only.
> 
>  * BSD license below:
>  *
>  * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
>  * modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
>  * are met:
>  * 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
>  *    notice [unmodified], this list of conditions, and the following
>  *    disclaimer.
>  * 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
>  *    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
>  *    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
>  *
>  * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
>  * ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
>  * IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
>  * ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
>  * FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
>  * DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
>  * OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
>  * HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
>  * LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
>  * OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
>  * SUCH DAMAGE.
> 
> This is clearly a BSD 2 Clause license and not BSD 3 Clause
> 
>  * GPL license :
>  * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
>  * modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
>  * as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
>  * of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
> 
> And here the license is GPL V2 or later.
> 
> Some detective work is due ...

Yes, this is on my todo list to fix up, thanks for reminding me of the
problems here.

greg k-h

> 
> Thanks,
> 
> 	tglx