On Thu, 2012-11-08 at 13:22 -0800, Andy Grover wrote: > On 11/08/2012 12:05 PM, Nicholas A. Bellinger wrote: > > Accusing us of violating GPL is a serious legal claim. > > > > In fact, we are not violating GPL. In short, this is because we wrote > > the code you are referring to (the SCSI target core in our commercial > > RTS OS product), we have exclusive copyright ownership of it, and this > > code contains no GPL code from the community. GPL obligations only > > apply downstream to licensees, and not to the author of the code. Those > > who use the code under GPL are subject to its conditions; we are not. > > Hi Nick, thanks for finally responding. > > I believe your argument is wrong for two reasons. > > First, LIO is a derivative work of the Linux kernel. It uses kernel APIs > and headers. You ship Linux as part of RTS OS. Even if you had not asked > for LIO to be included in mainline, this would still be true and would > require you to publish your changes under the GPLv2. > > Second, you claim you hold exclusive copyright for the code. Not true. > One example: on http://www.risingtidesystems.com/storage.html you claim > support for FCoE. You didn't build tcm_fc, Intel did. Under the GPLv2. > Furthermore, SRP support came from SCST, iirc. None of these > contributors gave RTS any right to use their copyrighted code except > under the conditions of the GPLv2. > Andy, Support for certified VAAI is part of our commercial target core. The target core constitutes a stand-alone kernel subsystem of which we are the sole copyright owners. In addition, our target contains a number of backend drivers, of which we are also the sole copyright owners, and a number of fabric modules, of which some we are the sole copyright owners, and of which others we are not, as you pointed out. A substantial fraction of the code of which we own the sole copyright was certified by BlackDuck Software as early as in 2007. We contributed our target to the Linux kernel in 2010, at which point we forked it into the upstream version and our commercial version. These target versions have been diverging over time, as we keep maintaining either one of them independently. For our commercial target core, we only use Linux kernel symbols that are not marked as GPL. In addition, we define the API between the target core and its backend drivers and between the target core and its fabric modules, we define the ABI between the target core and user space, and we have done so years before our code went upstream into the Linux kernel. We have been contributing substantially to the upstream target version to keep improving Linux. We have also been improving our commercial target version to afford the considerable effort and expense involved in our ongoing Linux contributions, and to compensate other top Linux kernel developers for their contributions to the upstream target version. RTS OS is based on a stock Linux enterprise kernel. This Linux kernel has naturally the ability to load either one of our standalone self-contained target module versions without any modifications. Again, we’re very disappointed by these untrue and highly damaging accusations from Red Hat. We have generously contributed to Linux, and we have generously supported the Linux community for their contributions to our upstream target and other Linux kernel parts. You have mostly just incorporated our work into Red Hat’s products. So yes, Andy, please start behaving properly, so that at least we can get back to making Linux better. --nab -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-scsi" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
