On Tue, Oct 13, 2020 at 04:41:06PM +0200, BALATON Zoltan wrote: > On Tue, 13 Oct 2020, Daniel P. Berrangé wrote: > > On Mon, Oct 12, 2020 at 04:29:33PM -0700, Joelle van Dyne wrote: > > > From: osy <os...@users.noreply.github.com> > > > > > > On iOS, we cannot fork() new processes, so the best way to load QEMU into > > > an > > > app is through a shared library. We add a new configure option > > > `--enable-shared-lib` that will build the bulk of QEMU into a shared lib. > > > The usual executables will then link to the library. > > > > Note that QEMU as a combined work is licensed GPLv2-only, so if an app is > > linking to it as a shared library, the application's license has to be > > GPLv2 compatible. I fear that shipping as a shared library is an easy way > > for apps to get into a license violating situation without realizing. > > Please don't let that be an obstacle in merging this series. They'll do it > anyway as seen here so having it upstream is probably better than having a > lot of different/divergent forks.
"They'll violate the license anyway" is not a compelling argument. > In case of UTM it seems to be licensed under Apache License 2.0: > > https://github.com/utmapp/UTM/blob/master/LICENSE > > which FSF says not compatible with GPLv2 but it is with GPLv3: > > http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#apache2 > > Not sure however if that's for using Apache licenced part in GPLv2 code or > the other way around like in UTM in which case I think the whole work will > effectively become GPLv3 as most parts of QEMU is probably GPLv2+ already or > BSD like free that should be possible to combine with only files explicitely > GPLv2 in QEMU remaining at that license and UTM parts are Apache 2.0 when > separated from QEMU. I have no idea about legal stuff whatsoever but > combining two free software components should be legal some way (otherwise > it's not possible to combine GPLv2 with GPLv3 either). You need to distinguish between GPLv2-only and GPLv2-or-later. GPLv2-or-later is fine as that upgrades to GPLv3 when used in a combined work with Apache License or GPLv3 software. GPLv2-only will, by design, *not* upgrade to newer GPL versions when combined - it is simply license incompatible. QEMU unfortunately has a bunch a GPLv2-only code present that we cannot eliminate. Regards, Daniel -- |: https://berrange.com -o- https://www.flickr.com/photos/dberrange :| |: https://libvirt.org -o- https://fstop138.berrange.com :| |: https://entangle-photo.org -o- https://www.instagram.com/dberrange :|
