[alsa-devel] GPL/LGPL licensing of the Alsa library
Hi,
We recently performed a licensing audit of a larger software project incorporating the Alsa library 1.0.19. One issue we identified was that although the Alsa library purported to state that the library was licensed under the LGPL, there were still several files with third party copyright holders that indicated in their header that the file in question was licensed under the GPL.
Does the Alsa project have some sort of documentation somewhere showing that the third parties consented to the re-licensing under the LGPL, or does it have copies of contributor agreements showing that the copyright holders granted the project organisation rights to re-license under the LGPL?
I realise nobody here is under any obligation to answer any of my questions, but if someone has the time, it would be greatly appreciated!
Regards.
--- Ossi Niiranen Lakimies / Attorney-at-law (NY) Neolex AB Tel. +358 400 414 289 http://www.neolex.fi LinkedIn: http://fi.linkedin.com/in/oniiranen Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/oniiranen
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On Mon, 28 Mar 2011, Ossi Niiranen wrote:
Hi,
We recently performed a licensing audit of a larger software project incorporating the Alsa library 1.0.19. One issue we identified was that although the Alsa library purported to state that the library was licensed under the LGPL, there were still several files with third party copyright holders that indicated in their header that the file in question was licensed under the GPL.
Please, show us the list of files with different licenses to check. I found test files and aserver (which is not probably used widely and the code is optional) as GPL. The library itself (.a and .so binaries) should follow LGPL.
Jaroslav
----- Jaroslav Kysela perex@perex.cz Linux Kernel Sound Maintainer ALSA Project, Red Hat, Inc.
Ossi Niiranen wrote:
We recently performed a licensing audit of a larger software project incorporating the Alsa library 1.0.19. One issue we identified was that although the Alsa library purported to state that the library was licensed under the LGPL, there were still several files with third party copyright holders that indicated in their header that the file in question was licensed under the GPL.
$ grep -rl 'GNU General' alsa-lib/ alsa-lib/COPYING alsa-lib/aserver/COPYING alsa-lib/aserver/aserver.c alsa-lib/include/sound/asequencer.h alsa-lib/include/sound/asound.h alsa-lib/include/sound/asound_fm.h alsa-lib/include/sound/asoundef.h alsa-lib/include/sound/emu10k1.h alsa-lib/include/sound/hdsp.h alsa-lib/include/sound/hdspm.h alsa-lib/include/sound/sb16_csp.h alsa-lib/m4/attributes.m4 alsa-lib/src/ucm/main.c alsa-lib/src/ucm/parser.c alsa-lib/src/ucm/ucm_local.h alsa-lib/src/ucm/utils.c alsa-lib/test/latency.c alsa-lib/test/oldapi.c alsa-lib/test/playmidi1.c
The aserver tool and the tests are separate and not part of the library itself; the UCM stuff is actually LGPL-licensed and mentions the GPL only in "You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License ...".
Most files in include/sound/ are just copies of the kernel headers.
Is there any specific file that you think would make the resulting library not LGPL?
The information contained in this e-mail is privileged ...
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Regards, Clemens
On Mon, 28 Mar 2011, Clemens Ladisch wrote:
alsa-lib/src/ucm/main.c alsa-lib/src/ucm/parser.c alsa-lib/src/ucm/ucm_local.h alsa-lib/src/ucm/utils.c
the UCM stuff is actually LGPL-licensed and mentions the GPL only in "You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License ...".
I fixed the text in GIT now. Thank you for this notice.
Jaroslav
----- Jaroslav Kysela perex@perex.cz Linux Kernel Sound Maintainer ALSA Project, Red Hat, Inc.
Thank you Clemens and Jaroslav.
I'll compare this file list to ours and let you know if there are differences.
One question though. Can you point me to any documentation on aserver so I could understand a bit better what it does? Googling revealed rather simple descriptions in the form of "aserver is contained in the ALSA library" and "aserver provides the ALSA library".
And point taken re the confidentiality notice;). It is included as standard in all our emails (and actually serves a purpose in some cases), but you are absolutely right that I should remember to remove it when posting to a mailing list. An omission on my part.
On Mar 28, 2011, at 12:00 PM, Clemens Ladisch wrote:
Ossi Niiranen wrote:
We recently performed a licensing audit of a larger software project incorporating the Alsa library 1.0.19. One issue we identified was that although the Alsa library purported to state that the library was licensed under the LGPL, there were still several files with third party copyright holders that indicated in their header that the file in question was licensed under the GPL.
$ grep -rl 'GNU General' alsa-lib/ alsa-lib/COPYING alsa-lib/aserver/COPYING alsa-lib/aserver/aserver.c alsa-lib/include/sound/asequencer.h alsa-lib/include/sound/asound.h alsa-lib/include/sound/asound_fm.h alsa-lib/include/sound/asoundef.h alsa-lib/include/sound/emu10k1.h alsa-lib/include/sound/hdsp.h alsa-lib/include/sound/hdspm.h alsa-lib/include/sound/sb16_csp.h alsa-lib/m4/attributes.m4 alsa-lib/src/ucm/main.c alsa-lib/src/ucm/parser.c alsa-lib/src/ucm/ucm_local.h alsa-lib/src/ucm/utils.c alsa-lib/test/latency.c alsa-lib/test/oldapi.c alsa-lib/test/playmidi1.c
The aserver tool and the tests are separate and not part of the library itself; the UCM stuff is actually LGPL-licensed and mentions the GPL only in "You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License ...".
Most files in include/sound/ are just copies of the kernel headers.
Is there any specific file that you think would make the resulting library not LGPL?
The information contained in this e-mail is privileged ...
This e-mail contains public information intended for any subscriber of this mailing list and for anybody else who bothers to read it; it will be copied, disclosed and distributed to the public. If you think you are not the intended recipient, please commit suicide immediately. These terms apply also to any e-mails quoted in, referenced from, or answering this e-mail, and supersede any confidentiality notices in those e-mails. Additionally, confidentiality notices in those e-mails will incur legal processing fees of $42 per line; you have agreed to this by reading this confidentiality notice.
Regards, Clemens
--- Ossi Niiranen Lakimies / Attorney-at-law (NY) Neolex AB Tel. +358 400 414 289 http://www.neolex.fi LinkedIn: http://fi.linkedin.com/in/oniiranen Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/oniiranen
At Mon, 28 Mar 2011 12:19:55 +0300, Ossi Niiranen wrote:
Thank you Clemens and Jaroslav.
I'll compare this file list to ours and let you know if there are differences.
One question though. Can you point me to any documentation on aserver so I could understand a bit better what it does? Googling revealed rather simple descriptions in the form of "aserver is contained in the ALSA library" and "aserver provides the ALSA library".
It's a daemon program to serve the multiple streaming using alsa-lib PCM shm plugin. This is a legacy technology, and mostly you can ignore it but just for fun.
Takashi
Sorry it took a while, but here's the list (this does not include files with the autoconf exception):
asequencer.h aserver.c asoundef.h asound_fm.h asound.h attributes.m4 (autoconf files) emu10k1.h hdsp.h latency.c oldapi.c playmidi1.c sb16_csp.h sndop-mixer.alisp sndo-mixer.alisp
The source code distribution of the package we reviewed does not seem to include the hdspm.h file you refer to below nor the UCM files. Does that mean the distribution is in some way "broken"?
Ours did include also the sndop-mixer files which seem to be licensed under the GPL as well (although at least one of them does not necessarily warrant copyright protection as it is just a few lines).
You made some generic comments in your email about why the GPL licensing is not an issue. If you have the time and the interest (there is obviously no obligation), I'd wish to take that a bit further into a file specific analysis (as we need certainty on a file level to be able to see there is no risk). For example, you say that aserver is "separate". Does that mean it is not shipped with the Alsa library? The impression I got from another response to my earlier post was that it is a legacy technology but still shipped with the library. If that's the case, I could not simply say that there are no GPL issues without further information on how this legacy tech is used. I need to do a similar file-based analysis for the other files as well to make sure there are no issues.
Just to re-emphasise something. My goal here is simply to produce an opinion on whether the licensing of a larger software package (which includes the alsa library) is properly managed - not to accuse anyone of anything. This process however requires quite a lot of digging into technical implementations and I thus appreciate the effort you folks have already put into helping me on this.
- Ossi
On Mon, Mar 28, 2011 at 12:00 PM, Clemens Ladisch clemens@ladisch.dewrote:
Ossi Niiranen wrote:
We recently performed a licensing audit of a larger software project incorporating the Alsa library 1.0.19. One issue we identified was that although the Alsa library purported to state that the library was licensed under the LGPL, there were still several files with third party copyright holders that indicated in their header that the file in question was licensed under the GPL.
$ grep -rl 'GNU General' alsa-lib/ alsa-lib/COPYING alsa-lib/aserver/COPYING alsa-lib/aserver/aserver.c alsa-lib/include/sound/asequencer.h alsa-lib/include/sound/asound.h alsa-lib/include/sound/asound_fm.h alsa-lib/include/sound/asoundef.h alsa-lib/include/sound/emu10k1.h alsa-lib/include/sound/hdsp.h alsa-lib/include/sound/hdspm.h alsa-lib/include/sound/sb16_csp.h alsa-lib/m4/attributes.m4 alsa-lib/src/ucm/main.c alsa-lib/src/ucm/parser.c alsa-lib/src/ucm/ucm_local.h alsa-lib/src/ucm/utils.c alsa-lib/test/latency.c alsa-lib/test/oldapi.c alsa-lib/test/playmidi1.c
The aserver tool and the tests are separate and not part of the library itself; the UCM stuff is actually LGPL-licensed and mentions the GPL only in "You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License ...".
Most files in include/sound/ are just copies of the kernel headers.
Is there any specific file that you think would make the resulting library not LGPL?
The information contained in this e-mail is privileged ...
This e-mail contains public information intended for any subscriber of this mailing list and for anybody else who bothers to read it; it will be copied, disclosed and distributed to the public. If you think you are not the intended recipient, please commit suicide immediately. These terms apply also to any e-mails quoted in, referenced from, or answering this e-mail, and supersede any confidentiality notices in those e-mails. Additionally, confidentiality notices in those e-mails will incur legal processing fees of $42 per line; you have agreed to this by reading this confidentiality notice.
Regards, Clemens
Ossi Niiranen wrote:
The source code distribution of the package we reviewed does not seem to include the hdspm.h file you refer to below nor the UCM files. Does that mean the distribution is in some way "broken"?
No, I just used whatever alsa-lib I had lying around, about 1.0.24.
Ours did include also the sndop-mixer files which seem to be licensed under the GPL as well (although at least one of them does not necessarily warrant copyright protection as it is just a few lines).
I just searched for "GNU General"; this string isn't in these files. I'm happy to see that your research is more thorough. :-)
You made some generic comments in your email about why the GPL licensing is not an issue. If you have the time and the interest (there is obviously no obligation), I'd wish to take that a bit further into a file specific analysis (as we need certainty on a file level to be able to see there is no risk).
OK
For example, you say that aserver is "separate". Does that mean it is not shipped with the Alsa library? The impression I got from another response to my earlier post was that it is a legacy technology but still shipped with the library. If that's the case, I could not simply say that there are no GPL issues without further information on how this legacy tech is used.
The aserver executable is shipped _with_ the ALSA library, but it is not part of the library itself; applications that use the ALSA library do not use aserver directly.
The ALSA library offers an API that allows application to access sound devices. Furthermore, the library contains several plugins that implement the actual access to specific devices, as well as other plugins that modify the sound data (e.g., sample rate conversion) and redirect the result to another plugin.
In most cases, the plugin at the bottom of this stack is the "hw" plugin which interfaces with the ALSA drivers in the kernel.
There are the "shm" and "share" plugins that use sockets to talk with the aserver program, which runs as a separate process and also uses alsa-lib to access the actual sound device. The goal of this is to allow multiple programs to share this sound device.
Applications that link to the ALSA library use only the public API and typically do not know which plugin(s) are used to implement the device; the plugin configuration is read by alsa-lib from some machine-specific .conf files. (I wrote "typically" because it is possible for applications to create their own configuration from scratch.)
Nowadays, the plugins that use aserver are considered legacy because the dshare and dmix plugins allow the same sharing without having to run a separate server program.
In conclusion, applications that use alsa-lib are not "derived from" or "based on" the aserver program (in any interpretation of these clauses); this falls clearly under the "mere aggregation" clause of the GPL.
include/sound/asound.h include/sound/asoundef.h include/sound/asequencer.h
These files are copies of the respective kernel files and define the interface between the kernel and the hw plugins.
include/sound/asound_fm.h include/sound/emu10k1.h include/sound/hdsp.h include/sound/sb16_csp.h
These files are copies of the respective kernel files and define interfaces that applications can use to directly access certain hardware-dependent parts of these drivers.
The ALSA library uses only the system calls defined in these kernel headers, so it is not derived from the kernel.
m4/attributes.m4
Parts of this file are copied into the configure script when running Autoconf. This falls under the Autoconf exception.
alsa-lib/test/latency.c alsa-lib/test/oldapi.c alsa-lib/test/playmidi1.c
The test programs are neither used by nor shipped with the compiled alsa-lib.
*.alisp
As far as I can tell, these files are not actually used anywhere.
Regards, Clemens
participants (4)
-
Clemens Ladisch -
Jaroslav Kysela -
Ossi Niiranen -
Takashi Iwai