Xen.org Source Code License Change Request
A few weeks back, Ian Campbell and Stefano Stabellini proposed that some files in the Xen.org community have their license changed:
The Xen source base includes two low level libraries (libxenctrl.so and libxenguest.so) which provide low level services to toolstacks and other components of the Xen system.
These two libraries are currently licensed under the umbrella of the top level COPYING file, i.e. GPLv2.
libxenlight has the aim of reducing maintenance burden across all toolstacks and is rapidly gaining momentum as a common shared implementation of core toolstack functionality. In order to maximise the amount of sharing possible the decision was made to license libxenlight under the LGPLv2. However libxenlight makes use of libxenctrl and libxenguest and is therefore effectively GPL which reduces the opportunities for libxenlight to be used. Specifically this is a problem for libvirt bindings since libvirt is LGPL.
Therefore we would like to propose relicensing both libxenctrl and libxenguest (i.e. the contents of tools/libxc) under the LGPLv2 and libelf (xen/common/libelf, shared with tools and hypervisor) under a dual GPLv2/LGPLv2 license.
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At this time, I am happy to report that I have been in touch with all the developers who have worked on these files and have received approval for this change. Here is the current approval list:
INDIVIDUALS
Brendan Cully – Approved
Bryan Payne – Approved
Dave McCracken – Approved
Nguyen Anh Quynh – Approved
Shiram Rajagopalan – Approved
Tristan Gingold – Approved
George Coker – Approved
Hap9 – Approved
COMPANIES
VA Linux – Approved
Intel – Approved
Fujitsu – Approved
Citrix – Approved
Oracle – Approved
Novell – Approved
Red Hat – Approved
AMD – Approved
We are in the final approval stages from Stratus, IBM, and HP as well as the following developers:
Bin Ren
Derek Murray
Geoffrey Lefebvre
Guy Zana
Jody Belka
Justin Gibbs
Kip Macy
Yuji Shimada
Michael Fetterman
Simon Kagstrom
If you are aware of any issues with this licensing change, please contact myself, Ian Campbell or Stefano Stabellini in the next two weeks as we intend to switch the license on August 11, 2010.