Re: [GIT PULL] Documentation: Add a file explaining the requested Linux kernel license enforcement policy

From: Bradley M. Kuhn
Date: Mon Oct 16 2017 - 10:42:58 EST


I want to thank everyone who has spent years putting together this Linux
Kernel Enforcement Statement. Conservancy issued a public thank-you today:
https://sfconservancy.org/news/2017/oct/16/linux-kernel-enforcement-statement/

Greg wrote:
> What? I thought I did in my blog post! Ugh, you are right, it's not
> there, my fault, it was in an earlier draft, I swear, sorry about that,

No problem! Here's the stable URL for that link when you add it:
https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/principles.html

When Conservancy released those Principles of Community-Oriented GPL
Enforcement, we asked for the copyleft-using community (in general) and the
Linux community (in particular) to join us in discussing it and looking for
ways to adopt those Principles in everyday work. I'm thus really glad to see
this great outcome!

The additional permission in Greg's proposed patch is an excellent way to
begin incorporation of those Principles into Linux's license officially, via
an opt-in exception for copyright holders. Conservancy plans this week to
officially sign it for the Linux copyrights that have been assigned to us.

I also would like to invite everyone to the mailing list created specifically
for this subject, at
https://lists.sfconservancy.org/mailman/listinfo/principles-discuss . Folks
should feel free to Cc that list with this thread, and/or (if the discussion
becomes OT for LKML) start a new thread there.

Greg, finally, I noticed you had some links to resources about compliance in
your blog post. Your readers may also be interested in FSF and Conservancy's
Copyleft Guide, which is at https://copyleft.org/guide/. A direct link to
the chapters on GPL compliance are:
https://copyleft.org/guide/comprehensive-gpl-guidepa2.html#x17-116000II
https://copyleft.org/guide/comprehensive-gpl-guidepa3.html#x26-152000III

I think the latter (the case studies) are particularly useful and my talk on
the most recent case study was well-received at Embedded Linux Conference
2015.
--
Bradley M. Kuhn
Distinguished Technologist of Software Freedom Conservancy
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