[Ofa_boardplus] OFED license statement

Paul Grun grun at cray.com
Mon Mar 6 11:06:06 PST 2017


Good summary, thanks Scott.

I believe that a vote is in order and will help to ensure that everybody is on the same page.
-Paul

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Ofa_boardplus [mailto:ofa_boardplus-bounces at lists.openfabrics.org] On
>Behalf Of Atchley, Scott
>Sent: Monday, March 06, 2017 10:59 AM
>To: Christoph Lameter <christoph at lameter.com>
>Cc: ofa_boardplus at lists.openfabrics.org,
><ofa_boardplus at lists.openfabrics.org>; Coulter, Susan K <skc at lanl.gov>
>Subject: Re: [Ofa_boardplus] OFED license statement
>
>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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