“A recent patch was merged into 2.6.8-rc3 providing an
x86-optimized assembly-code implementation of AES. The original
version of this code was written by Dr. Brian Gladman in 2001,
about which Linus noted, ‘I refused the code originally because I
didn’t feel that Gladman’s license was a proper subset of the GPL.
I only accepted it after dual-licensing under the GPL had been ok’d
by Dr Brian Gladman himself.’ Following the announcement that this
code had been merged, Jari Ruusu complained that this changed his
license without permission. What Jari’s actual standing is with the
license was called into question, though he did provide patches in
late 2001 and early 2002 and continues to maintain loop-aes. The
end result was the removal of the current optimized patch, with the
intention of rewriting it. Linus noted, ‘we’ll see just how quickly
somebody steps up to the plate. I spent some time taking the
original Gladman source into gas format, and have a really ugly
(untested) direct conversion if somebody wants to work on
it…'”
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Linus
Torvalds: Linux 2.6.8-rc3(Aug 04, 2004)