On Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 02:49:13PM -0400, Brett Smith wrote: > Some of the developers who were packaging software for the machine > pointed out that this license was unfortunate for them, because they > were interested in getting GRUB running on the box as well, and of > course, GPLv2-only is not a compatible license for a GPLv3-covered > project like GRUB. With that issue in front of him, RMS asked > SiliconMotion to allow the code to be used under the terms of GPLv3, one > way or another, which they agreed to. > > Please don't read any malice into that request, because I assure you > there was none. The FSF has consistently advocated that developers > should use licenses that are consistent with the larger projects they > interact with (as long as those licenses are free and GPL-compatible), > and that advice definitely applies to Xorg drivers. If we made a > mistake here, it was a failure to connect the dots. As weird as it > might sound, I don't think it was clear at the time that we were talking > about the licensing of an entire Xorg driver. If we had known that, we > would've asked SiliconMotion to switch to the X11 license, if possible, > to stay consistent with Xorg generally. > > And I'm happy to talk to SiliconMotion about that now. I don't know if > you have a usual way of handling licensing requests like this, but if > you want me to keep anybody or any lists in the loop on that thread, > that's no problem either; just let me know. And either way, if you have > any other questions or concerns about this, please don't hesitate to ask > me.
A switch in the siliconmotion improved stuff to MIT/X11 would be very beneficial to the BSDs, and X as a whole since it could be part of the main X distribution. I would appreciate it if you would keep me (at this address or [email protected]) informed about any progress on this. on another note, I have a lemote in the post, so I may be able to look at some of the Lynx EM+ issues. I was considering doing a kms driver when i've got OpenBSDs kms infrastructure thrashed out. -0- -- There's no room in the drug world for amateurs. _______________________________________________ [email protected]: X.Org support Archives: http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/xorg Info: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xorg
