TE
TechEcho
Home24h TopNewestBestAskShowJobs
GitHubTwitter
Home

TechEcho

A tech news platform built with Next.js, providing global tech news and discussions.

GitHubTwitter

Home

HomeNewestBestAskShowJobs

Resources

HackerNews APIOriginal HackerNewsNext.js

© 2025 TechEcho. All rights reserved.

UC Berkeley's Lawyers Blocking RISC-V in GCC

120 pointsby mynameislegionover 8 years ago

10 comments

rwmjover 8 years ago
This is annoying because it&#x27;s one of several things that stops Fedora&#x2F;RISC-V from going into Fedora proper, but I&#x27;m sure it&#x27;ll be sorted out.<p>Edit: To save anyone asking, here are the other things we&#x27;re waiting on:<p>* Upstreaming of glibc, kernel and binutils changes.<p>* Availability of rackable server hardware - required so we can deploy builders in the Fedora datacenter. This is obviously the biggest blocker, and likely several years away. In the interim I&#x27;m running my own build server which is currently doing a mass rebuild, but once that is finished will pick packages from the Fedora primary architecture builders and rebuild them for riscv64 (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;fedorapeople.org&#x2F;groups&#x2F;risc-v&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;fedorapeople.org&#x2F;groups&#x2F;risc-v&#x2F;</a>)<p>* Upstreaming of qemu changes (happening at the moment). Not a requirement, but nice to have.
评论 #12634536 未加载
评论 #12634311 未加载
asbover 8 years ago
I discussed this issue with a GCC developer at the LLVM Cauldron in Hebden Bridge a few weeks ago. He pointed out that although it&#x27;s understandable the UC Berkeley regents balk at the idea of exclusive copyright assignment, the terms of the assignment do allow you to receive non-exclusive rights back with a 90 day notice period. Why it&#x27;s structured in that way I&#x27;m not sure. I would hope there&#x27;s a legal reason relating to the FSF&#x27;s ability to fight copyright infringement, rather than a simple desire to discourage dual licensing.
评论 #12636322 未加载
CalChrisover 8 years ago
I went to Berkeley and I still drop by to sit in on lectures.<p>The IP department has always been terrible to deal with. They really are the opposite of Stanford with regards to IP. A pain to deal with, everything up front. Very hostile to startups. This probably puts SiFive in limbo.<p>They (the IP dept) lost a first rate EE prof (Howe) over nonsense like this. Their glory days of the BSD lawsuit are long over.
评论 #12637104 未加载
ucaetanoover 8 years ago
Shouldn&#x27;t the title be &quot;FSF blocking RISC-V in GGC unless UC Berkeley hands over copyright&quot;?
评论 #12636859 未加载
评论 #12639424 未加载
phkahlerover 8 years ago
Isn&#x27;t that code derived from GPLed code? In that case it must have a GPL license, so what are the lawyers really hung up on with copyright assignment? It&#x27;s not like they can change the license due to owning the copyright, and they can&#x27;t prevent anyone else using the code they&#x27;ve already released under that license. I guess I can see the frustration - at this point the actual ownership is kind of a minor point.
评论 #12635821 未加载
wodencafeover 8 years ago
Imagine all the good we developers and artists could do, if there weren&#x27;t so many goddamn lawyers in the way.
pawaduover 8 years ago
How much work are we talking about here? Is it possible to do a clean-room implementation with reasonable effort?
评论 #12637308 未加载
dredmorbiusover 8 years ago
Might a fix be to lobby the California state legislature to assign copyright through statute?
alrsover 8 years ago
Dear Regents of the University of California:<p>Could you guys someday learn to get out of your own way?
评论 #12633704 未加载
mankash666over 8 years ago
Port to clang. Lawyer friendly and practical license