Re: [PATCH] checkpatch: Only flag FSF address, not gnu.org URL

From: H. Peter Anvin
Date: Mon Jan 06 2014 - 18:53:19 EST


On 01/06/2014 03:27 PM, Greg KH wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 06, 2014 at 03:16:24PM -0800, Alexander Duyck wrote:
>> This change restricts the check for the for the FSF address in the GPL
>> copyright statement so that it only flags the address, not the references to
>> the gnu.org/licenses URL which appear in numerous drivers.
>>
>> So for example this statement will still return an error:
>> You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
>> along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
>> Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
>>
>> However, this statement will not return an error after this patch:
>> You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
>> along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
>
> Why is this paragraph needed? The kernel does come with a copy of the
> GPL, so it's not an issue for kernel files, right?
>

(IANAL but...) Presumably some people might be concerned about it
because of either patches on mailing lists or otherwise separate from
the kernel, or if someone pulls individual files out of the kernel tree
for another project.

-hpa


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