Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2004 18:30:36 GMT From: Yar Tikhiy <yar@comp.chem.msu.su> To: freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: kern/74861: Support to ISL VLANS? Message-ID: <200412131830.iBDIUaYK036439@freefall.freebsd.org>
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The following reply was made to PR kern/74861; it has been noted by GNATS. From: Yar Tikhiy <yar@comp.chem.msu.su> To: Josef Karthauser <joe@FreeBSD.org> Cc: freebsd-gnats-submit@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: kern/74861: Support to ISL VLANS? Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2004 21:22:25 +0300 On Mon, Dec 13, 2004 at 03:18:31PM +0000, Josef Karthauser wrote: > On Mon, Dec 13, 2004 at 05:22:05PM +0300, Yar Tikhiy wrote: > > I'm afraid that this PR is doomed. 5 years ago I worked for an > > academic network operations centre, where we ran ISL in FreeBSD > > using a homebrew implementation based on vlan(4). Later, after I > > had got my commit bit, I wrote a mail to Cisco asking if they would > > like to relicense the ISL spec so that it could be implemented in > > open-source products. I got an apparently negative reply. > > > > I still have working ISL code, but alas, I cannot make it public > > due to restrictive nature of Cisco's license on ISL. > > I don't know where this code came from exactly, but Joe suggested that > it was open sourced... That said perhaps it doesn't matter now with > 802.1Q in common usage. The code from Joe Marcus Clarke looks like a protocol dissector for some kind of a network sniffer while I've got an if_isl driver working in 4-STABLE. However, it may not be included into FreeBSD for licensing reasons I described. The very ISL _specification_ is under a restrictive license by Cisco, not code implementing it. On the one hand, I doubt that Cisco would sue a network sniffer project for including an ISL dissector, but on the other hand, we would be asking for legal trouble if we added if_isl to FreeBSD since it would be a real application of the encumbered protocol. There were enough license wars in the nearest past out there. Taking this into consideration, I think this PR can be closed. -- Yar
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