On 05/27/2009 11:43 PM, Theodore Kilgore wrote:
Hans,
Here is the answer which I got about the question of GPL->LGPL licensing
in regard to the sn9c2028 decompression code.
Hmm,
Given that you did have contact with the original author years ago and
he also did ok it back then, and that large parts of the code are written
by you, I'm ok with moving forward changing the license to LGPL and then
committing the patch.
Regards,
Hans
Theodore Kilgore
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 27 May 2009 13:19:46 -0400
From: Harald <hxr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Theodore Kilgore <kilgota@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Licensing question regarding SN9C2028 decompression
Hi Theodore,
I give you permission to use the SN9C2028 code with a LGPL license.
I am the current maintainer of the macam project. Most of the code that
has been
added in the last few years is mine. However, I did not originate the
SN9C2028
code. I have messed with it a lot, it may not bear much resemblance to
the original
code. I am sure that whatever code you based your version on has been
modified
as well. I doubt that you use Objective-C for example...
It is likely that technically all of macam should be under LGPL anyway,
as it works
as a plug-in component to QuickTime. So from an "intent" perspective,
that is how
the macam code is used anyway. You should be able to use it the same way.
I have never been able to contact the originator (mattik) of the
project! I became admin
through an intermediate admin (dirkx). We're all three admins, but
neither of the others
have contributed anything in the last 5 years.
I hope this helps,
Harald
On May 24, 2009, at 13:40, Theodore Kilgore wrote:
Harald,
Right now I am working on putting streaming support for the SN9C2028
cameras (supported by libgphoto2/camlibs/sonix as still cameras) into
the Linux kernel, as part of linux/drivers/media/video/gspca. In doing
so, there is a licensing conflict, as follows:
The Linux kernel is of course GPL licensed, as we are aware. However,
the philosophy of what the kernel is supposed to do with things like
video devices is, it takes care of creating a device dev/video and it
takes care of basic infrastructural things such as how to talk to the
camera, to initialize it, to turn it off, to tell it to stream, and to
detect and save packets and to construct frames.
The code for things like decompression has been deliberately moved
away from the kernel code, and the idea is to put all that stuff into
a library called libv4l, which then provides a unified interface for
userspace streaming apps.
The problem is, the decompression code would need to go into part of
libv4l, namely libv4lconvert. And the license for libv4l and
everything in it is LGPL, not GPL.
As the originator of the decompression function for the Sonix cameras,
are you willing to give permission for taking my version of the code
from GPL to LGPL? Or can you suggest some other appropriate course of
action?
Theodore Kilgore
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