1476798 - License CraneStation projects under "Apache-2.0 WITH LLVM-exception"

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(mozilla.org :: Licensing, task)

Description

[Dan Gohman [:sunfish]]

I am a developer of CraneStation, a new open-source project, developed by Mozilla in collaboration with others, that we wish to license as "Apache-2.0 WITH LLVM-exception". The full text of this license is registered here:

https://spdx.org/licenses/LLVM-exception.html

In summary, it is Apache-2.0, with an exception for explicit GPLv2 compatibility and an exception providing that generated output is not subject to attribution requirements.

Currently, there are two repositories on Github that are part of this project, Cranelift and target-lexicon, though in the future we may add more:

https://github.com/CraneStation/cranelift
https://github.com/CraneStation/target-lexicon

The repositories already bear the new license, as I have discussed using this license with Mozilla lawyers and was unaware that I should also file a bug here until I was asked to do so in bug 1476388.

Please let me know if there's any other information I can provide, or other steps I should take.

Comment 1

[Mike Hoye [:mhoye]]

Apache 2.0 With LLVM Exception is an acceptable license for a Mozilla-owned codebase with the qualification, that while the GPLv2 exception allows code from this project to be integrated into GPLv2-licensed projects, it does _not_ permit code from GPLv2 (or any GPL'ed project) to be reintegrated back into our source tree.

In the case of https://github.com/CraneStation/target-lexicon  it looks like there is a single contributor to that codebase, so that will be straightforward and whoever controls that codebase can go ahead and make the change. 

In the case of the https://github.com/CraneStation/cranelift I think this is different. Absent a contributor agreement (which I don't see in the tree) in order for you to re-license this project you'll need to obtain the consent of all the people who've participated in it. Unfortunately, I see you've already made the change:

https://github.com/CraneStation/cranelift/commit/6f2faddd58903277d5c4adc4ebbe881236cab614

... but in order for that to be kosher you're going to have to get consensus of the people who've written all this code.
My advice is to create an issue and make sure all 39 people on this project show up and agree to the change.

Comment 2

[Mike Hoye [:mhoye]]

(and revert that commit until you have that consensus, please.)

Comment 3

[Dan Gohman [:sunfish]]

Before changing the license, I contacted all significant contributors and obtained their consent, under the guidance of Urmika Devi Shah. To the best of my knowledge, I followed an appropriate process, obtained consensus, and everything is kosher already.

Comment 4

[Mike Hoye [:mhoye]]

OK, excellent. In that case, please go ahead.