Import license issue

Andrew Stubbs ams@codesourcery.com
Mon Sep 14 16:56:14 GMT 2020


Hi All,

I need to update include/hsa.h to access some newer APIs. The existing 
file was created by copying from the user manual, thus side-stepping 
licensing issues, but the updated user manual omits some important 
details from the APIs I need (mostly the contents of structs and value 
of enums). Of course, I can go see those details in the source, but 
that's not the same thing.

So, what I would like to do is import the header files I need into the 
GCC sources; there's precedent for importing (unmodified) copyright 
files for libffi etc., AFAICT, but of course the license needs to be 
acceptable.

The relevant files are here:

https://github.com/RadeonOpenCompute/ROCR-Runtime/blob/master/src/inc/hsa.h
https://github.com/RadeonOpenCompute/ROCR-Runtime/blob/master/src/inc/hsa_ext_amd.h
https://github.com/RadeonOpenCompute/ROCR-Runtime/blob/master/src/inc/hsa_ext_image.h

When I previously enquired about this on IRC I was advised that the 
Illinois license would be unacceptable because it contains an 
attribution clause that would require all binary distributors to credit 
AMD in their documentation, which seems like a reasonable position. I've 
requested that AMD provide a copy of these specific files with a more 
acceptable license, and I may yet be successful, but it's not that simple.

The problem is that GCC already has this exact same license in 
libsanitizer/LICENSE.TXT so, again reasonably, AMD want to know why that 
licence is acceptable and their license is not.

Looking at the files myself, there appears to be some kind of dual 
license thing going on, and the word "Illinois" doesn't actually appear 
in any libsanitizer source file (many of which contain an Apache license 
header). Does this mean that the Illinois license is not actually active 
here? Or is it that it is active and binary distributors really should 
be obeying this attribution clause already?

Can anybody help me untangle this, please?

Are the files acceptable, and if not, how is this different from the 
other cases?

Thanks very much

Andrew


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