From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jan 22 12:31:12 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5D650106564A for ; Thu, 22 Jan 2009 12:31:12 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from vince@unsane.co.uk) Received: from unsane.co.uk (unsane-pt.tunnel.tserv5.lon1.ipv6.he.net [IPv6:2001:470:1f08:110::2]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AD8978FC0C for ; Thu, 22 Jan 2009 12:31:11 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from vince@unsane.co.uk) Received: from vhoffman.lon.namesco.net (126.117-84-212.staticip.namesco.net [212.84.117.126]) (authenticated bits=0) by unsane.co.uk (8.14.0/8.14.0) with ESMTP id n0MCWCYF030050 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Thu, 22 Jan 2009 12:32:13 GMT (envelope-from vince@unsane.co.uk) Message-ID: <4978670C.4000708@unsane.co.uk> Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 12:31:08 +0000 From: Vincent Hoffman User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.19 (Macintosh/20081209) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Saifi Khan References: <9a52b1190901201015v68473203w649af60b08fca0d2@mail.gmail.com> <4976F5E2.7090907@unsane.co.uk> <9a52b1190901220320p66f69d4eg5c7032fff74b469f@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <9a52b1190901220320p66f69d4eg5c7032fff74b469f@mail.gmail.com> X-Enigmail-Version: 0.95.7 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: ASL 2.0 based software contribution to FreeBSD code base X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 12:31:12 -0000 Saifi Khan wrote: > On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 10:16 AM, Vincent Hoffman wrote: > >> Saifi Khan wrote: >> >>> Hi: >>> >>> Is Apache Software License (ASL) 2.0 based software contributions >>> accepted in FreeBSD code base ? >>> >>> Specific case to consider would be: >>> a. device driver code released under ASL 2.0 >>> b. code contributed to kernel (eg. scheduler implementation) under ASL 2.0 >>> c. code contributed to userland (eg. new implementation of ctags) under ASL 2.0 >>> >>> Can some of the experienced members share how things work within the >>> context of FreeBSD project ? >>> >>> >>> >> I was going to answer with >> http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/committers-guide/pref-license.html >> however in a recent discussion on the -current list >> (http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=163526+0+current/freebsd-current) >> Brooks Davis said >> "This file is outdated. While this remains our prefered license, the >> current >> OpenBSD prefered license is the ISC licesed which is allowed by the license >> policy we published to developers last year. We should probably replace >> this >> page with that policy." >> >> I'd ask for a copy of the current policy on freebsd-current@ if you dont >> get any answers here. >> >> >> > > Hi Vince: > > Thank you for your kind reply. > > Please see my writeup on ASL at http://www.twincling.org/node/277 > > While i understand ASL, i'm keen to know what are the technical > deviations (if any) in the BSD licsense followed by FreeBSD project. > > eg. if i write a device driver and release it under ASL 2.0, can it > legally make into FreeBSD project ? > > I'm in no way a licence expert and I'm not a FreeBSD developer, however my understanding (from sources such as [http://wiki.freebsd.org/VendorInformation]) is that in answer to your original questions a) Device drivers - yes but it cannot be included in the GENERIC config, but thats what modules are for anyway. b) Kernel/base system - No - I belive this would need to be BSD licensed. c) userland - Yes but probably needs to be in the contrib directory as an example, all the ZFS stuff is CDDL licenced , This had to be kept separate from pretty much everything but it's there. However I could well be wrong and its almost certainly worth asking these questions again on the freebsd-current mailing list where developers who might actually know the answers hang out. Vince