From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 17786 invoked by alias); 2 Mar 2008 11:37:12 -0000 Received: (qmail 17777 invoked by uid 22791); 2 Mar 2008 11:37:12 -0000 X-Spam-Check-By: sourceware.org Received: from rock.gnat.com (HELO rock.gnat.com) (205.232.38.15) by sourceware.org (qpsmtpd/0.31) with ESMTP; Sun, 02 Mar 2008 11:36:52 +0000 Received: from localhost (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by filtered-rock.gnat.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id ADA242A9DB5; Sun, 2 Mar 2008 06:36:50 -0500 (EST) Received: from rock.gnat.com ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (rock.gnat.com [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id 6bYT0vFZNDw1; Sun, 2 Mar 2008 06:36:50 -0500 (EST) Received: from [127.0.0.1] (nile.gnat.com [205.232.38.5]) by rock.gnat.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 72B032A9C63; Sun, 2 Mar 2008 06:36:50 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <47CA9144.6040209@adacore.com> Date: Sun, 02 Mar 2008 11:37:00 -0000 From: Robert Dewar User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.12 (Windows/20080213) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Nicholas Mc Guire CC: Doug Evans , Lokesh Gupta , gdb@sourceware.org Subject: Re: Tracepoints functionality for local targets References: <21b011a40802260027r596c2c0bt96339538b8e5cc92@mail.gmail.com> <20080226131031.GA9105@caradoc.them.org> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-IsSubscribed: yes Mailing-List: contact gdb-help@sourceware.org; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: gdb-owner@sourceware.org X-SW-Source: 2008-03/txt/msg00014.txt.bz2 Nicholas Mc Guire wrote: > It is GPL V2 and not assigned to the FSF - it was funded by Siemens AG > (Cooperate Technology) and Im talking to them - but it took 1 year to > get them to release it under the GPL and get permission to release it to > the public so don't expect this to happen any time soon - anyway it is a > supprise to me that it is insufficient to release code under the GPL V2 > and frankly if the FSF requires copyright assignment then this is bad news > for free software developers The FSF requires that people assign the copyright, this keeps the copyright situation clear on the whole project. You have to be very careful in copying code, just because someone somewhere says some code is under the GPL does not make it so, you have to be 100% sure that the person owning the copyright has issued the license, and the way that FSF project does this is to insist on formal copyright assignment. No one is compelled to do such an assignment of course, but for the code to be part of the FSF GNU project, the FSF does require this assignment. > - what reason could I give any other company > to require the same ? The same reason that has convinced hundreds of individuals and major corporations to assign code. If you assign the code to the FSF, then it gets mainlined into the FSF development sources, which means your patches are continuously tested, and you don't have to deal with reinserting them in every new release. If Siemens is interested in having this code be mainlined into the GDB sources, they have to agree to the assignment. If they are not interested in this, then they don't need to agree, and unfortunately it won't happen. > On the other hand if the FSF has legitimate reasons > not to accept GPL code as it could lead to restrictions then this would > be the case for any commercial entity as well and be really bad news for > GPL all together. It's is not a matter of restrictions, just a matter of being careful about copyright and ownership. The GPL is not some magic that removes this requirement for diligence. > So I still hope that the GPL V2 code would be accepted > by the GDB people. There does need to be an assignment for it to be incorporated