Re: [Qemu-riscv] [Qemu-devel] [PULL 33/34] roms: Add OpenSBI version 0.3

[Alistair Francis]

On Tue, Jul 2, 2019 at 3:34 AM Paolo Bonzini <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> On 02/07/19 06:12, Markus Armbruster wrote:
> >> Yeah, if we're not building the apache-2.0 parts then I think
> >> we're OK, and as you say there's the question of whether QEMU's
> >> GPL affects what we ship as mere bios blobs to run as guest
> >> code anyway. But it's sufficiently not a "really obviously ok"
> >> that I'd like a second opinion; cc'd some people who might have
> >> second opinions.
> >
> > You need an expert opinion.
> >
> > My non-expert opinion: we can't distribute anything that's not
> > compatible with GPLv2
>
> Guest code is not part of QEMU.  We don't say that SeaBIOS, SLOF, etc.
> are part of QEMU; it constitutes mere aggregation with the GPLv2 QEMU
> sources, so it _is_ possible to distribute APSL2 guest code with QEMU.
> IANAL, but I'm fairly sure about this.

This is my understanding as well. We aren't linking OpenSBI with QEMU
so we should be fine to release it with any license.

>
> However I agree that LICENSE needs to be updated, something like this:
>
> diff --git a/LICENSE b/LICENSE
> index 0e0b4b9553..81b9b3572d 100644
> --- a/LICENSE
> +++ b/LICENSE
> @@ -1,13 +1,18 @@
> -The following points clarify the QEMU license:
> +The QEMU distribution includes both the QEMU emulator and
> +various firmware files.  These are separate programs that are
> +distributed together for our users' convenience, and they have
> +separate license.
>
> -1) QEMU as a whole is released under the GNU General Public License,
> -version 2.
> +The following points clarify the license of the QEMU emulator:
>
> -2) Parts of QEMU have specific licenses which are compatible with the
> -GNU General Public License, version 2. Hence each source file contains
> -its own licensing information.  Source files with no licensing information
> -are released under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or (at your
> -option) any later version.
> +1) The QEMU emulator as a whole is released under the GNU General
> +Public License, version 2.
> +
> +2) Parts of the QEMU emulator have specific licenses which are compatible
> +with the GNU General Public License, version 2. Hence each source file
> +contains its own licensing information.  Source files with no licensing
> +information are released under the GNU General Public License, version
> +2 or (at your option) any later version.
>
>  As of July 2013, contributions under version 2 of the GNU General Public
>  License (and no later version) are only accepted for the following files

Ok, I'll update the QEMU LICENSE file in the next patch version.

Alistair

>
> Paolo
>