Regarding Licensing of hid-tminit and hid-tmff2 about hid-tmff2

[Kimplul]

Honestly, pretty much just an oversight on my part. hid-tminit and this project have some common history, hid-tminit is based on some code in this repository that scarburato then made more generic. I believe this was before I added a LICENSE file to the repository.

In any case, the module itself has always had MODULE_LICENSE("GPL") to get access to the HID subsystem. According to the kernel documentation, "GPL" means GPL-2.0-or-later, so the SPDX-License-Identifier comment should actually be GPL-2.0-or-later. I'll push a fix to update the comments. Having the LICENSE file be GPL3 complies with this 2-or-later, and I chose GPL3 more or less on a whim (newer is always better, right?). I'm not particularly interested in licensing stuff, and these decisions are honestly pretty much just based on the MODULE_LICENSE("GPL") macro that is required to make the driver work.

You edited out that GPL3 was deprecated, I don't really have any issues with using GPL2 if that makes packagers' lives easier though I'm curious why you edited that bit out?

[eclairevoyant]

I think the point of confusion on their part was GPL3 as an identifier is deprecated in favour of explicitly saying "-or-later" vs "-only". The license itself is still a valid license afaik.

[eclairevoyant]

@RaySlash based on

the SPDX-License-Identifier comment should actually be GPL-2.0-or-later

I assume that's what they intend for the repo?

[Kimplul]

The only reason why I removed that was when I realised that was the case in for the nix and they have made a change in GPL3 to GPL3-only or GPL3-or-later and was asking me to use the non-deprecated license according to nix, if possible. Sorry, that was a confusion on my part which made me edit the post.

Gotcha, thanks for the explanation.

I believe that it should be easier to process for reviewers of nix and myself if it was using the same LICENSE throughout the project.

Makes sense.

I looked slightly closer at the GPL licenses, at least the SPDX docs at https://spdx.org/licenses/GPL-2.0-or-later.html show the 'or-later' part as something specified on a per-file basis. Not a lawyer, but to me this sounds like for each file you could say "you can use the code in this file in a project distributed with GPL-2.0-or-later", and with this project being GPL3 the requirement is fulfilled. There's no separate 'GPL-2.0-or-later' LICENSE file one could use, as far as I can tell. Still, I can switch the LICENSE file over to GPL2 if that makes things simpler?

the SPDX-License-Identifier comment should actually be GPL-2.0-or-later

I assume that's what they intend for the repo?

I guess? The main point of truth here (in my opinion) is the MODULE_LICENSE macro, which specifies GPL-2.0-or-later, so I think GPL-2.0-or-later for the package would be the most fitting.

I realize this 'or-later' business is complicating things a bit, and using GPL2/3-only would probably be simpler. I don't have any strong opinions on GPL2 vs GPL3 vs possible future versions, but I know some people have and I would like to keep open the possibility of people extending this driver with their preferred version of the license. Sorry for the extra headache.

[RaySlash]

No worries. That seems to be enough information regarding the license for now. Ill be following the GPL-2-or-later which would effectively mean that the repository can stay GPL-3. I believe that should do it for now. Ill comment here back in case of any queries. Once again, Thank you for your response. 😄 ❤️

[RaySlash]

The only reason why I removed that was when I realised that was the case in for the nix and they have made a change in GPL3 to GPL3-only or GPL3-or-later and was asking me to use the non-deprecated license according to nix, if possible. Sorry, that was a confusion on my part which made me edit the post.

I was trying to communicate with nix team when they referred me this. They have deprecated just GPL-3 and one can read more about it here.

[RaySlash]

Myself, I am no expert in licensing. I have been trying to gather as much information regarding this. I really appreciate your openness towards users like me who can now play and enjoy these sim racing games with FFB on Linux systems. <3 I see that you have made necessary changes to the SPDX-License-Identifier already. In this context, would you be able to help me with whether to choose GPL3-only , GPL3-or-later or GPL2-or-later for the package I would be creating for this repo. I believe that it should be easier to process for reviewers of nix and myself if it was using the same LICENSE throughout the project. Cheers!

PS: edited because of my broken english. Sorry. :)