Re: Copyright and maintainability question for new ARM Cortex A9 HAL

[Michael Jones <mjones@linear.com>]

Jonathan,

The files have the following copyright. They do not refer to any license.

I find the second redistribution clause a nuisance. It means if you make an app or library and distribute, you have to reproduce the copyright notice. Just how do you do that with an end application?

Mike

/*
 * Copyright (c) 2013, Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.
 * All rights reserved.
 *
 * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification,
 * are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
 *
 * o Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list
 *   of conditions and the following disclaimer.
 *
 * o Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this
 *   list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or
 *   other materials provided with the distribution.
 *
 * o Neither the name of Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. nor the names of its
 *   contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this
 *   software without specific prior written permission.
 *
 * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND
 * ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
 * WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
 * DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR
 * ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
 * (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
 * LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON
 * ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
 * (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
 * SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
 */



On Sep 6, 2013, at 9:04 PM, Jonathan Larmour <jifl@eCosCentric.com> wrote:

> On 05/09/13 04:52, Michael Jones wrote:
>> 
>> The status is:
>> 
>> - Project not registered yet
> 
> That's not an issue. Projects don't need to be registered.
> 
>> - Uses Freescale SDK macros
>> - Uses Freescale SDK code for MMU, GIC, etc
> 
> Okay, the most important thing we need to know is the license for that
> Freescale SDK. Is it Free (with a capital F) - in other words, it can be
> distributed and redistributed freely by anyone in a way acceptable to the Free
> Software Foundation (FSF)? That means really, is it one of the licenses here:
> http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#GPLCompatibleLicenses
> 
> If it is one of those licenses, that will probably mean it's okay (unless the
> GPL exception clause in the eCos license causes some conflict). Furthermore,
> we can directly incorporate any files you use directly into the port, avoiding
> any problems with users having to build with an SDK which lives elsewhere.
> 
> 
>> Before I register, I want to have a strategy in place to deal with
>> Freescale code. Do I replace all the Freescale code line by line until
>> nothing is left,
> 
> Assuming it needs to be replaced...
> 
> Replacing it line by line is risky. Copyright is about ideas, not just who
> typed it in. If you use the same, or a sufficiently similar, API or design to
> theirs, it risks infringing the copyright. Not only must it not be the API, it
> must not be able to be considered to have been derived from the API.
> 
> In some cases, people have gone to the extent of "clean room" implementations
> to avoid this sort of thing, but I don't think that's likely to be needed. But
> really what's wanted is to effectively do what you would have done if the
> Freescale SDK APIs hadn't been there. For some stuff, it can't really be done
> any other way *anyway*, which is fine. For example, an interrupt controller
> mask macro - there's probably only one particular way to do it. Although if,
> for example, you named the function, and any local variables, exactly the same
> way, that might be a problem. Hopefully replacement isn't relevant though.
> 
>> or see if Freescale will assign copyright?
> 
> That would certainly be easiest, however I don't think they're going to want
> to assign copyright for their whole SDK! There can only be one owner of the
> code, and it would mean it was no longer Freescale. So that really won't fly.
> However, I think in this case we can have confidence that Freescale are the
> owners of the code, and have the rights to redistribute; that's something we
> have to be more cautious about with other contributors.
> 
> Jifl
> 
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