[Ofa_boardplus] OFED license statement

[Atchley, Scott]

For those that have not been following this saga, all of the userspace code is still dual-licensed. Part of the RDMA subsystem in the Linux kernel was refactored so that some upper layer protocols (ULPs such as NVMe-over Fabrics, SRP, etc.) could use common utilities. The author of the common utilities submitted it as GPLv2 only. The ULPs remain dual-licensed as does the vendor supplied drivers. The ULPs, however, now depend on the GPL-only utilities.

> On Mar 6, 2017, at 1:40 PM, Christoph Lameter <christoph at lameter.com> wrote:
> 
> They have inadvertently published OFED that way for a long time as far as I can tell. Clarification is clearly needed ASAP. A vote will not change anything.
> 
> On Mar 6, 2017 10:59 AM, "Dale, David" <David.Dale at netapp.com> wrote:
> Hi Susan,
> 
> I disagree.  NetApp believes this needs a formal Board vote.   The Bylaws are quite clear that OFED releases should be dual license – the EWG cannot publish a release that includes non dual-licensed code without a Board vote.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> David
> 
> --
> David Dale
> Director Industry Standards
> CTO Office, NetApp
> 1-617-417-7861
> ddale at netapp.com
> 
> 
> On 3/3/17, 7:33 PM, "Ofa_boardplus on behalf of Coulter, Susan K" <ofa_boardplus-bounces at lists.openfabrics.org on behalf of skc at lanl.gov> wrote:
> 
> 
>     Folks,
>     The EWG would really like to move forward with their OFED release.
>     To that end, we need approval from the Board that they can do so - with the statement below included in a license or readme file.
>     Please indicate the following:
> 
>     - We need a formal vote to approve this
> 
>     - We do NOT need a formal vote to approve this
> 
>     If there is support for needing a formal vote, I am going to propose we vote via email - if possible.
>     The OFED release has been waiting for the board to approve their release and provide language about the licensing.
>     This has gone on long enough, and we have plenty of other issues that will take our time at the next couple conference calls.
> 
>     My position is that we do NOT need to formally approve this.
> 
>     Thanx.
> 
>     STATEMENT TO BE INCLUDED IN OFED:
> 
>     OFED is distributed as a source tarball and includes both kernel space and user space code.  The kernel space code includes a number of files that are licensed under GPLv2 only.  Therefore, the kernel space code included as part of the OFED tarball is licensed as GPLv2.  The user space code, however, is dual licensed (GPLv2 and BSD).
> 
> 
>     ==================================================
>     Susan Coulter / HPC-DES
>     Network Capability Lead
>     (505) 667-8425
>     “Once in a while you get shown the light
>         In the strangest of places if you look at it right”  Robert Hunter
>     ==================================================
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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