[libcamera-devel] [PATCH] v4l2: Relicense V4L2 compatibility layer under LGPL

[Laurent Pinchart]

The V4L2 compatibility layer is licensed under the GPL. It is compiled
as a binary separate from libcamera.so, and is loaded into the address
space of processes through LD_PRELOAD to intercept calls to the C
library.

It is our understanding and intent that the GPL license doesn't
propagate to the binaries whose calls are intercepted, considering those
binaries are not derivative work of the V4L2 compatibility layer and are
not designed to be linked to the V4L2 compatibility layer. There is
however a possibly grey area if binaries are packaged with a shell
script wrapper that loads the V4L2 compatibility layer. This could lead
to license-related issues if such packaging is performed by Linux
distributions or system integrators.

To clarify the intent and lift the doubts, relicense the V4L2
compatibility layer under the LGPL. The V4L2 compatibility layer code
itself still benefits from the license protection, while its usage with
third-party binaries is clearly allowed as intended.

Signed-off-by: Laurent Pinchart <laurent.pinchart at ideasonboard.com>
---
 src/v4l2/v4l2_camera.cpp         | 2 +-
 src/v4l2/v4l2_camera.h           | 2 +-
 src/v4l2/v4l2_camera_proxy.cpp   | 2 +-
 src/v4l2/v4l2_camera_proxy.h     | 2 +-
 src/v4l2/v4l2_compat.cpp         | 2 +-
 src/v4l2/v4l2_compat_manager.cpp | 2 +-
 src/v4l2/v4l2_compat_manager.h   | 2 +-
 7 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/v4l2/v4l2_camera.cpp b/src/v4l2/v4l2_camera.cpp
index 50a4121cc93f..4da01a450dca 100644
--- a/src/v4l2/v4l2_camera.cpp
+++ b/src/v4l2/v4l2_camera.cpp
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-/* SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later */
+/* SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later */
 /*
  * Copyright (C) 2019, Google Inc.
  *
diff --git a/src/v4l2/v4l2_camera.h b/src/v4l2/v4l2_camera.h
index c969130fb37d..303eda44ca1d 100644
--- a/src/v4l2/v4l2_camera.h
+++ b/src/v4l2/v4l2_camera.h
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-/* SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later */
+/* SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later */
 /*
  * Copyright (C) 2019, Google Inc.
  *
diff --git a/src/v4l2/v4l2_camera_proxy.cpp b/src/v4l2/v4l2_camera_proxy.cpp
index 19e8f6d3b98d..3df4d42b59ea 100644
--- a/src/v4l2/v4l2_camera_proxy.cpp
+++ b/src/v4l2/v4l2_camera_proxy.cpp
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-/* SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later */
+/* SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later */
 /*
  * Copyright (C) 2019, Google Inc.
  *
diff --git a/src/v4l2/v4l2_camera_proxy.h b/src/v4l2/v4l2_camera_proxy.h
index e15b230d5f23..af9f9bbe83d5 100644
--- a/src/v4l2/v4l2_camera_proxy.h
+++ b/src/v4l2/v4l2_camera_proxy.h
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-/* SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later */
+/* SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later */
 /*
  * Copyright (C) 2019, Google Inc.
  *
diff --git a/src/v4l2/v4l2_compat.cpp b/src/v4l2/v4l2_compat.cpp
index a162037f6dc7..2a9a17629106 100644
--- a/src/v4l2/v4l2_compat.cpp
+++ b/src/v4l2/v4l2_compat.cpp
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-/* SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later */
+/* SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later */
 /*
  * Copyright (C) 2019, Google Inc.
  *
diff --git a/src/v4l2/v4l2_compat_manager.cpp b/src/v4l2/v4l2_compat_manager.cpp
index cd8ac0b8e819..2338a0ee1dd2 100644
--- a/src/v4l2/v4l2_compat_manager.cpp
+++ b/src/v4l2/v4l2_compat_manager.cpp
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-/* SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later */
+/* SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later */
 /*
  * Copyright (C) 2019, Google Inc.
  *
diff --git a/src/v4l2/v4l2_compat_manager.h b/src/v4l2/v4l2_compat_manager.h
index 872c7c3b10e8..14338a59deca 100644
--- a/src/v4l2/v4l2_compat_manager.h
+++ b/src/v4l2/v4l2_compat_manager.h
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-/* SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later */
+/* SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later */
 /*
  * Copyright (C) 2019, Google Inc.
  *
-- 
Regards,

Laurent Pinchart