Non-free (?) GLX code under GLX Public License and SGI Free Software Licence B

[Dave Airlie]

>>> >> SGI have released other things in X under more permissive licenses, so
>>> >> maybe they would want to do this with the GLX stuff also; the present
>>> >> licensing makes their code problematic for many distributions, and I
>>> >> suppose they originally published it so it could be used.
>> >
>> > Well, you'd have to convince their legal department that the cost (and
>> > the cost will be non-trivial) would be worth it.  I'd imagine this would
>> > be difficult.
>
> Excuse my ignorance, but what are the nature of these costs? There's the
> logistical costs of changing the files, communicating the changes,
> updating the Web site, but is there more?
>
> Do they have third party obligations which would mean they'd incur costs
> (e.g., patent licensing problems) if they were to change the license?
>

a) SGI no longer cares about GLX that much. All of OpenGL has been
handed to the Khronos group.
so I'm not sure who can relicense the code, it might be possible for
the Khronos group to release a relicensed version
if they could be made care.

b) lawyers cost money.

I think the intersection of people who care and can do anything about
this is negative..

Dave.