Re: [PATCH] mtd: rawnand: mtk: Re-license MTK NAND driver as Dual MIT/GPL

Masahiro Yamada <yamada.masahiro@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> · Fri, 21 Jun 2019 21:37:32 +0900

On Thu, Jun 20, 2019 at 10:58 AM <xiaolei.li@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> From: Xiaolei Li <xiaolei.li@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> It is wanted to use MTK NAND driver with GPL-2.0 or MIT license.
> But now it is only licensed as GPL-2.0.
> So re-license it as dual MIT/GPL and replace license text with
> SPDX tag.
>
> Signed-off-by: Xiaolei Li <xiaolei.li@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Acked-by: Jorge Ramirez-Ortiz <jorge.ramirez-ortiz@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Acked-by: Ryder Lee <ryder.lee@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Acked-by: Rafał Miłecki <rafal@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Acked-by: Miquel Raynal <miquel.raynal@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Acked-by: Boris Brezillon <boris.brezillon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Acked-by: Wen Yang <yellowriver2010@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Acked-by: Dan Carpenter <dan.carpenter@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Acked-by: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@xxxxxxxx>
> Acked-by: Masahiro Yamada <yamada.masahiro@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
>  drivers/mtd/nand/raw/mtk_ecc.c  | 12 ++----------
>  drivers/mtd/nand/raw/mtk_ecc.h  |  4 +---
>  drivers/mtd/nand/raw/mtk_nand.c | 12 ++----------

https://www.gnu.org/licenses/identify-licenses-clearly.html
says:
"But trouble will happen even during your lifetime. What if we release
GNU GPL version 4
ten years from now, and by that time 50 others have added to your
program, releasing
their added code under GPL-3.0-only simply because you did? You could
approve GPL 4 for
the program you initially released, but it would be a big job to
contact the 50 subsequent
developers at that time to get their permission for GPL 4 usage of
their additions."

This implies the re-licensing is really difficult
once you make it available in open source.

You should make sure if we have covered all the contributors.
(Probably, tglx is OK, he just converted SPDX.)

Contributors to mtk_ecc.c:
$ git log  --follow --pretty=format:'%an'
drivers/mtd/nand/raw/mtk_ecc.c | sort | uniq
Arnd Bergmann
Boris Brezillon
Dan Carpenter
Gustavo A. R. Silva
Jorge Ramirez-Ortiz
RogerCC Lin
Ryder Lee
Thomas Gleixner
Wen Yang
Xiaolei Li

Contributors to mtk_ecc.h:
$ git log  --follow --pretty=format:'%an'
drivers/mtd/nand/raw/mtk_ecc.h | sort | uniq
Boris Brezillon
Jorge Ramirez-Ortiz
RogerCC Lin
Xiaolei Li

Contributors to mtk_nand.c:
$ git log  --follow --pretty=format:'%an'
drivers/mtd/nand/raw/mtk_nand.c | sort | uniq
Boris Brezillon
Jorge Ramirez-Ortiz
Masahiro Yamada
Miquel Raynal
Rafał Miłecki
RogerCC Lin
Ryder Lee
Thomas Gleixner
Wei Yongjun
Xiaolei Li

For example, how about the author of the following commit?

He works for the same company, so just ask him.

commit b45ee5501ede9a369e9bc20edca508193b848d25
Author: RogerCC Lin <rogercc.lin@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date:   Thu Nov 30 22:10:44 2017 +0800

    mtd: nand: mtk: Support different MTK NAND flash controller IP

>  3 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 23 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/drivers/mtd/nand/raw/mtk_ecc.c b/drivers/mtd/nand/raw/mtk_ecc.c
> index 05b0c19d72d9..74595b644b7c 100644
> --- a/drivers/mtd/nand/raw/mtk_ecc.c
> +++ b/drivers/mtd/nand/raw/mtk_ecc.c
> @@ -1,17 +1,9 @@
> +// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 OR MIT
>  /*
>   * MTK ECC controller driver.
>   * Copyright (C) 2016  MediaTek Inc.
>   * Authors:    Xiaolei Li              <xiaolei.li@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>   *             Jorge Ramirez-Ortiz     <jorge.ramirez-ortiz@xxxxxxxxxx>
> - *
> - * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
> - * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 as
> - * published by the Free Software Foundation.
> - *
> - * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
> - * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
> - * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
> - * GNU General Public License for more details.
>   */
>
>  #include <linux/platform_device.h>
> @@ -604,4 +596,4 @@ module_platform_driver(mtk_ecc_driver);
>
>  MODULE_AUTHOR("Xiaolei Li <xiaolei.li@xxxxxxxxxxxx>");
>  MODULE_DESCRIPTION("MTK Nand ECC Driver");
> -MODULE_LICENSE("GPL");
> +MODULE_LICENSE("Dual MIT/GPL");
> diff --git a/drivers/mtd/nand/raw/mtk_ecc.h b/drivers/mtd/nand/raw/mtk_ecc.h
> index a455df080952..0e48c36e6ca0 100644
> --- a/drivers/mtd/nand/raw/mtk_ecc.h
> +++ b/drivers/mtd/nand/raw/mtk_ecc.h
> @@ -1,12 +1,10 @@
> +/* SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 OR MIT */
>  /*
>   * MTK SDG1 ECC controller
>   *
>   * Copyright (c) 2016 Mediatek
>   * Authors:    Xiaolei Li              <xiaolei.li@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>   *             Jorge Ramirez-Ortiz     <jorge.ramirez-ortiz@xxxxxxxxxx>
> - * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
> - * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 as published
> - * by the Free Software Foundation.
>   */
>
>  #ifndef __DRIVERS_MTD_NAND_MTK_ECC_H__
> diff --git a/drivers/mtd/nand/raw/mtk_nand.c b/drivers/mtd/nand/raw/mtk_nand.c
> index 617f9656a045..373d47d1ba4c 100644
> --- a/drivers/mtd/nand/raw/mtk_nand.c
> +++ b/drivers/mtd/nand/raw/mtk_nand.c
> @@ -1,17 +1,9 @@
> +// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 OR MIT
>  /*
>   * MTK NAND Flash controller driver.
>   * Copyright (C) 2016 MediaTek Inc.
>   * Authors:    Xiaolei Li              <xiaolei.li@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>   *             Jorge Ramirez-Ortiz     <jorge.ramirez-ortiz@xxxxxxxxxx>
> - *
> - * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
> - * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 as
> - * published by the Free Software Foundation.
> - *
> - * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
> - * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
> - * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
> - * GNU General Public License for more details.
>   */
>
>  #include <linux/platform_device.h>
> @@ -1653,6 +1645,6 @@ static struct platform_driver mtk_nfc_driver = {
>
>  module_platform_driver(mtk_nfc_driver);
>
> -MODULE_LICENSE("GPL");
> +MODULE_LICENSE("Dual MIT/GPL");
>  MODULE_AUTHOR("Xiaolei Li <xiaolei.li@xxxxxxxxxxxx>");
>  MODULE_DESCRIPTION("MTK Nand Flash Controller Driver");
> --
> 2.18.0
>
>
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-- 
Best Regards
Masahiro Yamada

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