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COPYING: create a new file with points to the Kernel license files
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With the addition of SPDX patchset, the contents of COPYING file
is now duplicated at two other files under LICENSE:
	LICENSES/preferred/GPL-2.0
	LICENSES/exceptions/Linux-syscall-note

It is easy to check that the contents of the licence written on
those files are identical with COPYING using:

	$ diff -upr COPYING LICENSES/preferred/GPL-2.0
	$ diff -upr COPYING LICENSES/exceptions/Linux-syscall-note|less

Also, a new file was added, with describes how SPDX should work at
the Kernel source files:
	Documentation/process/license-rules.rst

Instead fo having it copying the contents of two files, and not
even mentioning the third one, replace it by a file whose content
points to the other tree files, preserving the Kernel's license.

Adjust license-rules.rst accordingly.

Please notice that this file preserves the Kernel license as
is, without any changes.

Signed-off-by: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <[email protected]>
Reviewed-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet <[email protected]>
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mchehab authored and Jonathan Corbet committed Mar 23, 2018
1 parent aebb47d commit 88de995
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Showing 2 changed files with 29 additions and 9 deletions.
18 changes: 18 additions & 0 deletions COPYING.new
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The Linux Kernel is provided under:

SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 WITH Linux-syscall-note

Being under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only,
according with:

LICENSES/preferred/GPL-2.0

With an explicit syscall exception, as stated at:

LICENSES/exceptions/Linux-syscall-note

In addition, other licenses may also apply. Please see:

Documentation/process/license-rules.rst

for more details.
20 changes: 11 additions & 9 deletions Documentation/process/license-rules.rst
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -4,15 +4,17 @@ Linux kernel licensing rules
============================

The Linux Kernel is provided under the terms of the GNU General Public
License version 2 only (GPL-2.0), as published by the Free Software
Foundation, and provided in the COPYING file. This documentation file is
not meant to replace the COPYING file, but provides a description of how
each source file should be annotated to make the licensing it is governed
under clear and unambiguous.

The license in the COPYING file applies to the kernel source as a whole,
though individual source files can have a different license which is
required to be compatible with the GPL-2.0::
License version 2 only (GPL-2.0), as provided in LICENSES/preferred/GPL-2.0,
with an explicit syscall exception described in
LICENSES/exceptions/Linux-syscall-note, as described in the COPYING file.

This documentation file provides a description of how each source file
should be annotated to make its license clear and unambiguous.
It doesn't replace the Kernel's license.

The license described in the COPYING file applies to the kernel source
as a whole, though individual source files can have a different license
which is required to be compatible with the GPL-2.0::

GPL-1.0+ : GNU General Public License v1.0 or later
GPL-2.0+ : GNU General Public License v2.0 or later
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