Re: [PATCH v4 00/12] [dt-bindings] [media] Add document file and driver for Sony CXD2880 DVB-T2/T tuner + demodulator

[Philippe Ombredanne]

On Thu, Dec 14, 2017 at 7:04 PM, Mauro Carvalho Chehab
<mchehab@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Em Thu, 14 Dec 2017 17:32:34 +0000
> "Bird, Timothy" <Tim.Bird@xxxxxxxx> escreveu:
>
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: Philippe on Thursday, December 14, 2017 6:25 AM
>> > Dear Mauro,
>> >
>> > On Thu, Dec 14, 2017 at 11:55 AM, Mauro Carvalho Chehab
>> > <mchehab@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> >
>> > > SPDX is a new requirement that started late on Kernel 4.14 development
>> > > cycle (and whose initial changes were merged directly at Linus tree).
>> > > Not all existing files have it yet, as identifying the right license
>> > > on existing files is a complex task, but if you do a:
>> > >
>> > >         $ git grep SPDX $(find . -name Makefile) $(find . -name Kconfig)
>> > >
>> > > You'll see that lot of such files have it already.
>> >
>> > FWIW, short of having SPDX tags, identifying the right license on
>> > existing files is not a super complex task: if boils down to running
>> > many diffs.
>> >
>> > Take the ~60K files in kernel, and about 6K license and notices
>> > reference texts. Then compute a pairwise diff of each of the 60K file
>> > against the 6K reference texts. Repeat the pairwise diff a few more
>> > times, say 10 times, as multiple licenses may appear in any given
>> > kernel file. And keep the diffs that have the fewest
>> > difference/highest similarity with the reference texts as the detected
>> > license. Done!
>>
>> You can't do license detection and assignment in this automated fashion -
>> at least not generally.
>>
>> Even a single word of difference between the notice in the source
>> code and the reference license notice or text may have legal implications
>> that are not conveyed by the simplified SPDX tag.  When differences are
>> found, we're going to have to kick the discrepancies to a human for review.
>> This is especially true for files with multiple licenses.
>>
>> For a work of original authorship, or a single copyright holder, the author
>> or copyright holder may be able to change the notice or text, or gloss
>> over any difference from the reference text, and make the SPDX  assignment
>> (or even change the license, if they want).  This would apply to something
>> new like this Sony driver.  However, for code that is already in the kernel
>> tree, with likely multiple contributors, the legal situation gets a little
>> more murky.
>
> Precisely. This is easily fixable when the code author changes the
> license text, or when someone from the Company that holds copyrights sends
> the SPDX markups (as emails @company can be seen as official e-mails, except
> if explicitly noticed otherwise). So, from my side, I'm now requiring
> SPDX for new drivers.
>
> However, if someone else is doing the changes, it can be tricky and risky
> to pick up the patch, adding my SOB, if not endorsed by the copyright
> owners, or by LF legal counseling. So, I prefer to not pick those myself,
> except from people I trust.

Exactly, and this why --after the first batch that Greg pushed and
Linus pulled and that had been carefully reviewed--, I am trying to
gently nit the submitters of new patches, one at a time to use the new
SPDX tags. Eventually if I can find the time, I could also submit some
bigger patches to add SPDX tags to a bunch of files at once but that
would have to be organized in small batches by copyright holder and
these would be only RFCs until reviewed by and agreed to by the actual
copyright holders.

-- 
Cordially
Philippe Ombredanne