Xilinx Microblaze copyrights question

Fri Jan 30 21:32:20 UTC 2015

The wording is very bizarre:

"Except as otherwise provided in a valid license issued to you by Xilinx, and to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law: (1) THESE MATERIALS ARE MADE AVAILABLE "AS IS" AND WITH ALL FAULTS, AND XILINX HEREBY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY..."

If there is no other valid license the source is made available "AS IS".  But what does "made available" mean?  How can it be used?  They then go on to restrict their liability, making it plain it is expected that the code will be used without the "other valid license".  To further add to that expectation they specifically mention situations where it can't be used under any circumstances.

I wouldn't want to hazard a guess as to what this mess legally means.  This is a "I'll have my cake and eat it too, please" copyright.  I'm sure an aggressive lawyer would have a field day with it.

Yes, the code should be avoided if there isn't another "valid license" somewhere that clarifies things.  Has part of the RTEMS discussion with Xilinx specifically asking for an appropriate "valid license" and providing a suggested one?  That's the tack I'd take.

> On Jan 29, 2015, at 20:35 , Chris Johns <chrisj at rtems.org> wrote:
> 
> On 29/01/2015 8:43 pm, Hesham Moustafa wrote:
>> I didn't find a separate license file but I found this license
>> paragraph on one of the header files:
> 
> The following license is not suitable for RTEMS and I question any 
> Xilinx code that may have been added to RTEMS as being suitable. 
> Specifically, the license states the file contains confidential and 
> proprietary information and so adding it to an open source source makes 
> it public and so a violation of the license.
> 
> We have been having a long discussion about this with Xilinx and as of 
> yet no suitable agreement has been reached.
> 
> Chris
> 
>> 
>> /******************************************************************************
>> *
>> * (c) Copyright 2002-2013 Xilinx, Inc. All rights reserved.
>> *
>> * This file contains confidential and proprietary information of Xilinx, Inc.
>> * and is protected under U.S. and international copyright and other
>> * intellectual property laws.
>> *
>> * DISCLAIMER
>> * This disclaimer is not a license and does not grant any rights to the
>> * materials distributed herewith. Except as otherwise provided in a valid
>> * license issued to you by Xilinx, and to the maximum extent permitted by
>> * applicable law: (1) THESE MATERIALS ARE MADE AVAILABLE "AS IS" AND WITH ALL
>> * FAULTS, AND XILINX HEREBY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS, EXPRESS,
>> * IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF
>> * MERCHANTABILITY, NON-INFRINGEMENT, OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE;
>> * and (2) Xilinx shall not be liable (whether in contract or tort, including
>> * negligence, or under any other theory of liability) for any loss or damage
>> * of any kind or nature related to, arising under or in connection with these
>> * materials, including for any direct, or any indirect, special, incidental,
>> * or consequential loss or damage (including loss of data, profits, goodwill,
>> * or any type of loss or damage suffered as a result of any action brought by
>> * a third party) even if such damage or loss was reasonably foreseeable or
>> * Xilinx had been advised of the possibility of the same.
>> *
>> * CRITICAL APPLICATIONS
>> * Xilinx products are not designed or intended to be fail-safe, or for use in
>> * any application requiring fail-safe performance, such as life-support or
>> * safety devices or systems, Class III medical devices, nuclear facilities,
>> * applications related to the deployment of airbags, or any other applications
>> * that could lead to death, personal injury, or severe property or
>> * environmental damage (individually and collectively, "Critical
>> * Applications"). Customer assumes the sole risk and liability of any use of
>> * Xilinx products in Critical Applications, subject only to applicable laws
>> * and regulations governing limitations on product liability.
>> *
>> * THIS COPYRIGHT NOTICE AND DISCLAIMER MUST BE RETAINED AS PART OF THIS FILE
>> * AT ALL TIMES.
>> *
>> 
>> The UART device is simple RS232 UART, which I believe there is an
>> implementation somewhere in RTEMS that I can use with minimal effort.
>> 
>> On Thu, Jan 29, 2015 at 2:25 AM, Joel Sherrill
>> <joel.sherrill at oarcorp.com> wrote:
>>> These may already be in the tree as part of the Zynq port if the serial port(s) are the same.
>>> 
>>> Please post the full copyright text but check if the same code is already in the tree in support of another of their ports.
>>> 
>>> And congratulations on getting it working this much quickly. :)
>>> 
>>> On January 28, 2015 1:07:38 PM CST, Gedare Bloom <gedare at rtems.org> wrote:
>>>> See if there is a license in the distribution that contained the Xilinx
>>>> files.
>>>> 
>>>> -Gedare
>>>> 
>>>> On Wed, Jan 28, 2015 at 1:05 PM, Hesham Moustafa
>>>> <heshamelmatary at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> Hi,
>>>>> 
>>>>> I am currently porting RTEMS to Microblaze based on Joel's work.
>>>> Hello
>>>>> world hits Init and printf successfully, so I have to write a console
>>>>> driver. Xilinx has UART driver already. The question is can I copy
>>>>> code from Xilinx files to RTEMS? The files have "(c) Copyright
>>>>> 2002-2013 Xilinx, Inc. All rights reserved." lines only.
>>>>> 
>>>>> P.S. Joel's work quotes files from Xilinx as is.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Best,
>>>>> Hesham
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> devel mailing list
>>>>> devel at rtems.org
>>>>> http://lists.rtems.org/mailman/listinfo/devel
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> devel mailing list
>>>> devel at rtems.org
>>>> http://lists.rtems.org/mailman/listinfo/devel
>>> 
>>> --joel
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Peter
-----------------
Peter Dufault
HD Associates, Inc.      Software and System Engineering