Uncertain license terms for sofa kernel module

itri-sofa / sofa

SOFA (Software Orchestrated Flash Array) is a log-structured flash array management system

Apache License 2.0

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Uncertain license terms for sofa kernel module #4

Closed jserv closed 4 years ago

jserv commented 4 years ago

The source file src/sofa_main/sofa_module_init.c declares itself as Apache License v2. However, by the end of this file, the kernel module are about to be registered as GPL via the macro MODULE_LICENSE("GPL"). The incompatibility between GPLv2/v3 and Apache License were discussed here: https://www.apache.org/licenses/GPL-compatibility.html

Therefore, the current implementation causes the uncertainty regarding licensing terms in sofa module for Linux kernel.

peter-huang0402 commented 4 years ago

Thanks again. We might need a internal discuss on this issue tomorrow. Maybe we just remove all GPL license and keep Apache License v2 on SOFA.

jserv commented 4 years ago

Check Linux kernel licensing rules for details. You might have to apply dual-licensing model. Example from the kernel for license expression in dual licensed file:

SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 OR Apache-2.0

The license described in the COPYING file applies to the kernel source as a whole. You have to make sure the compatibility with GPLv2.