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license: add RELICENSE.md file to track consent/disapproval for relicensing under LGPL-2.1+
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Relicensing NetworkManager GPL Code as LGPL-2.1+
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================================================
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This NetworkManager project consists of the daemon, client tools, and libnm.
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libnm is licensed LGPL-2.1+, while the rest is licensed under GPL-2.0+.
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Why Relicensing?
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================
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Mixing two licenses in the same source tree is cumbersome:
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1) We want to share code internally and reuse it. In particular under "shared/" directory
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there are internal static libraries that get linked both into LGPL and GPL code.
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That implies that this shared code itself must be LGPL licensed. Being unable to
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move code around within our source tree is a painful restriction. Possibly we get
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that wrong sometimes, wrongly moving GPL code as LGPL (either directly or by rewriting
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it based on GPL code).
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2) For example keyfile and ifcfg-rh implementations are GPL licensed as they
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are historically part of core. It would be useful to add this functionality
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to libnm, so that libnm users can handle the file formats directly. That is
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not possible without relicensing.
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3) Maybe one day we would relicense the entire source tree as LGPL-2.1+ to avoid
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this issue. This would require agreement from all copyright holders.
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Full relicensing (point 3) is a large effort, or maybe even impossible. However sometimes
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we may need to evaluate whether small parts can be relicensed (points 2 and 1). This
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file keeps track of copyright holders that agree or disapprove to such a license change.
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Which Code?
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===========
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This applies to all GPL-2.0+ code in commit a3e75f329446a93a61ca4c458a7657bd919f4fe6 ([1]) and
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all its parent commits.
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Since commit a3e75f329446a93a61ca4c458a7657bd919f4fe6 ([1]), the CONTRIBUTING file ([2]) makes
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it clear that all new contributions must to be provided under terms of LGPL-2.1+. So this
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approval process is only relevant for GPL-2.0+ code from before that. This was also announced on
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the mailing list on June 12 2019 ([3]). Note that the announcement was still talking about LGPL-2.0+
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but in the meantime we only request LGPL-2.1+ ([4]).
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- [1] https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/NetworkManager/NetworkManager/commit/a3e75f329446a93a61ca4c458a7657bd919f4fe6
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- [2] https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/NetworkManager/NetworkManager/blob/a3e75f329446a93a61ca4c458a7657bd919f4fe6/CONTRIBUTING#L37
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- [3] https://mail.gnome.org/archives/networkmanager-list/2019-June/msg00006.html
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- [4] https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/NetworkManager/NetworkManager/commit/3c36231706a9314f6bf03901dd13923cd32a5457
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Consent/Disapproval about What?
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===============================
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Whether the copyright holder agrees to relicense the code in a3e75f329446a93a61ca4c458a7657bd919f4fe6
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and its parents under terms of LGPL-2.1+.
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How to Track Consent/Disapproval?
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=================================
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The consent/disapproval is tracked in this file for the copyright holders
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who made their wish known. In the list below [Y] indicates consent while [N]
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indicates disapproval.
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To express the wish either send an email to our mailing list <networkmanager-list@gnome.org>
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or open a merge request against this file, adding your name to the list. Then this
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file will be updated to track the information. The git commit messages in the history
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of this file will give details when/how an entry was added.
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Consent/Disapproval List
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========================
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- [Y] Thomas Haller <thaller@redhat.com>
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