From: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
To: Joe Perches <joe@perches.com>
Cc: Krzysztof Kozlowski <krzysztof.kozlowski@oss.qualcomm.com>,
Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>,
Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>,
Andy Whitcroft <apw@canonical.com>,
Dwaipayan Ray <dwaipayanray1@gmail.com>,
Lukas Bulwahn <lukas.bulwahn@gmail.com>,
linux-spdx@vger.kernel.org, workflows@vger.kernel.org,
linux-doc@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] LICENSES: Explicitly allow SPDX-FileCopyrightText
Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2026 20:35:14 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <2026010726-crusader-recoup-4825@gregkh> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <4702253d918c8edb899a91fbd79b40199a013264.camel@perches.com>
On Wed, Jan 07, 2026 at 10:40:11AM -0800, Joe Perches wrote:
> On Wed, 2026-01-07 at 18:12 +0100, Krzysztof Kozlowski wrote:
> > Sources already have SPDX-FileCopyrightText (~40 instances) and more
> > appear on the mailing list, so document that it is allowed. On the
> > other hand SPDX defines several other tags like SPDX-FileType, so add
> > checkpatch rule to narrow desired tags only to two of them - license and
> > copyright. That way no new tags would sneak in to the kernel unnoticed.
>
> I find no value in this tag. I think it should be discouraged.
>
> How is it different or more useful than a typical Copyright or © symbol ?
It's easier to parse automatically and put into other places (like a
software bill of materials).
I don't like it all that much either, as really, it doesn't mean much
(go talk to a lawyer for details), but it's already in our tree so we
might as well document it...
thanks,
greg k-h
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-01-07 19:35 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 7+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-01-07 17:12 Krzysztof Kozlowski
2026-01-07 18:40 ` Joe Perches
2026-01-07 19:35 ` Greg Kroah-Hartman [this message]
2026-01-07 19:38 ` Joe Perches
2026-01-07 21:28 ` Krzysztof Kozlowski
2026-01-07 18:52 ` Greg Kroah-Hartman
2026-01-07 19:29 ` Laurent Pinchart
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to=2026010726-crusader-recoup-4825@gregkh \
--to=gregkh@linuxfoundation.org \
--cc=apw@canonical.com \
--cc=corbet@lwn.net \
--cc=dwaipayanray1@gmail.com \
--cc=joe@perches.com \
--cc=krzysztof.kozlowski@oss.qualcomm.com \
--cc=linux-doc@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=linux-spdx@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=lukas.bulwahn@gmail.com \
--cc=tglx@linutronix.de \
--cc=torvalds@linux-foundation.org \
--cc=workflows@vger.kernel.org \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox