[PATCH 0/3] ACPI: parse the SPCR table

[One Thousand Gnomes]

On Wed, 27 Jan 2016 15:17:52 +0300
Aleksey Makarov <aleksey.makarov at linaro.org> wrote:

> On 01/25/2016 07:11 PM, Peter Hurley wrote:
> > On 01/25/2016 03:45 AM, Aleksey Makarov wrote:  
> >> This patchset is based on the patchset by Leif Lindholm [1]
> >>
> >> 'ARM Server Base Boot Requirements' [2] mention SPCR 
> >> (Serial Port Console Redirection Table) [3] as a mandatory
> >> ACPI table that specifies the configuration of serial console.
> >>
> >> Licensing concerns have prevented implementing it in the past, but as of
> >> 10 August 2015, these tables have both been released also under 
> >> OWF 1.0 [4].  
> > 
> > This license has a patent retaliation provision, which makes it
> > incompatible with GPLv2.
> > 
> > *If the license applies to this code*, then this patch set does not
> > meet the criteria for submission.  
> 
> The license applies not to this code but to the document describing the tables.
> 
> Here is an excerpt from it:
> 
>   Patent Notice:
>   Microsoft is making certain patent rights available for implementations of this specification under two options:
>   1)  Microsoft’s Community Promise, available at
>   http://www.microsoft.com/openspecifications/en/us/programs/community-promise/default.aspx; or
>   2)  The Open Web Foundation Final Specification Agreement Version 1.0 ("OWF 1.0")
>   as of October 1, 2012, available at http://www.openwebfoundation.org/legal/the-owf-1-0-agreements/owfa-1-0. 
> 
> I believe that it means that the patch set meets the criteria for submission.  Am I right?

This is not a forum for legal advice. I would suggest that Linaro
discusses it privately with the Linux Foundation and Linus and does so
under attorney-client privilege. The Linux Foundation does have some
reasons to exist.

Alan