Linux: Relicensing Code

“In a recent series of patches posted to the Linux Kernel
mailing list, it was proposed that some imported Atheros wireless
device drivers be re-licensed, some from a dual-BSD/GPL license,
others from a modified BSD license, all to a pure GPLv2 license.
Christoph Hellwig asked, “is this really a good idea? Most of the
reverse-engineering was done by the OpenBSD folks, and it would
certainly be helpful to work together with them on new hardware
revisions, etc..” Luis Rodriguez suggested that there was no
choice, “technically the best we can do is to leave the license as
dual licensed, but keep in that technically that means nothing and
is just for show, the GPL is what would apply as its derivative
work and is the most restrictive license.”

Complete
Story