Open Source License Compliance with Yocto Project

Presented at Linaro Connect (Virtual) 2020 by Paul Barker, Konsulko Group.

Open Source license compliance is a concern for any company which distributes systems containing the Linux kernel and other copyleft-licensed components. The Yocto Project, a widely used Embedded Linux toolkit including the OpenEmbedded build system, contains many tools to help companies achieve license compliance. Output from a Yocto Project build can also be fed into other license compliance software such as Fossology. In this talk Paul explores these tools, address how best to configure & connect them and discuss current best practices. Paul explores how modern programming languages such as Go, Javascript and Rust cause license compliance headaches due to their separate package managers and how to resolve these issues. He shows how to handle common concerns such as commercially licensed media codecs and GPLv3 licensed software components. He also brings the audience up to date with the latest developments and ongoing work in this area of the Yocto Project. This talk covers technical best practices and available tools, it does not give legal advice.