[systemd-devel] [HEADS-UP] Relicensing systemd from GPLv2+ to LGPLv2.1+

[Lennart Poettering]

Hey,

Right now systemd is licensed GPLv2+ for most stuff, with the exception
of a few MIT licensed files. This has become a bit of a problem, since
we probably want to allow closed source stuff to link to
libsystemd-login.so and specifically libsystemd-journal.so (we want to
allow closed source code to drop entries in the journal.)

Now, we could go and relicense only the files necessary for those two
libs to LGPLv2.1+, but that wouldn't really be too efficient since those
libraries share a lot of code with the rest of systemd. Also, and more
importantly I want the ability to freely move code around in the various
components of systemd, and if we have different licenses for a lot of
this code this would be really difficult.

Hence: I'd like to avoid further problems in this area and relicense the
entirety of systemd from GPLv2+ to LGPLv2.1+ (with the exception of
those MIT files which will stay MIT and which are very isolated from the
rest, since they are designed as drop-in files for other projects).

Unfortunately it's trivial to upgrade LGPL to GPL, but the other way
round is more more difficult:

To do this I need the OK from all contributors (well, at least those who
contributed more than trivial bits). I'd hence like to ask for your
OK, if you are listed on the list below. Please reply to me personally
(please do not spam the mailing list! so really, just to me personally!)
if you are OK with the license change, and also if you aren't.

A. Costa
Adrian Spinu
Albert Strasheim
Alexey Shabalin
Andreas Jaeger
Andrew Edmunds
Andrey Borzenkov
Barry Scott
Bastien Nocera
Bill Nottingham
Brandon Philips
Brendan Jones
Brett Witherspoon
Chris E Ferron
Christian Ruppert
Conrad Meyer
Dan Horák
Daniel J Walsh
Dave Reisner
Dexter Morgan
Fabian Henze
Fabiano Fidêncio
Florian Kriener
Franz Dietrich
Frederic Crozat
Gregs Gregs
Gustavo Sverzut Barbieri
Harald Hoyer
Henry Gebhardt
Jan Engelhardt
Jeff Mahoney
Jesse Zhang
Jim Meyering
Jonathan Nieder
Josh Triplett
Koen Kooi
Lucas De Marchi
Ludwig Nussel
Luis Felipe Strano Moraes
Maarten Lankhorst
Malcolm Studd
Marc-Antoine Perennou
Marko Saukko
Martin Mikkelsen
Mathieu Bridon
Matthew Miller
Matthias Clasen
Matthias Schiffer
Michael Biebl
Michael Olbrich
Michael Tremer
Michal Schmidt
Michal Vyskocil
Michał Górny
Mike Kazantsev
Mike Kelly
Miklos Vajna
Milan Broz
Ozan Çağlayan
Paolo Bonzini
Paul Menzel
Pavol Rusnak
Piotr Drąg
Rainer Gerhards
Ran Benita
Robert Gerus
Sedat Dilek
Tero Roponen
Thierry Reding
Thomas Jarosch
Tim Waugh
Tollef Fog Heen
Tom Gundersen
Tomasz Torcz
Ville Skyttä
William Douglas
William Jon McCann
William Swanson
Wulf C. Krueger
Zbigniew Jędrzejewski-Szmek
"cee1"

Please respond within a week or two. For all folks who have not
responded in time we'll do a bit of a code audit and I'll try to contact
them directly if necessary. But I'd prefer if I wouldn't have to do
that.

Thank you very much for your cooperation!

Lennart

-- 
Lennart Poettering - Red Hat, Inc.