nanogui: Licensing
Subject:
Re: Re[2]: Licensing
From:
Warner Losh ####@####.####
Date:
12 May 1999 20:07:35 -0000
Message-Id: <199905122002.OAA23259@harmony.village.org>
In message <Pine.LNX.4.04.9905122043170.1171-100000@hyperspace> Alex Holden writes:
: We were joking... Notice the smiley face?
I forgot my smiley face. I'm sorry. :-).
: > In actual practice, these two methods result in approximately the same
: > amount of code being shared back with the original authors. People in
: > the BSD realm do so because they want to, but some people that use GNU
: > software ignore the license when it suits them.
:
: Got any examples of the latter? I know there was the Be drivers thing, but
: that was resolved quickly and reasonably once someone pointed out to them
: that they were breaking the terms of the GPL.
I have been approached by several firms that wish to use Linux in an
embedded system, but do not want any changes made to the base Linux to
be contributed back, nor do they want any of their drivers to be
released in any form whatsoever, except as part of their package. I
refused this work, so I don't know what finally happened with these
companies products. Since I have non-disclosure agreements with these
companies as part of the work negotation phase I cannot disclose who
they are. However, if I ever notice them release products, I'll
suggest that people take a look at their products to see if they are
in compliance.
I have seen companies steal packet drivers, released under the GPL,
port them and then refuse to release the source under any conditions
(major violation), or release the source under different conditions
(eg a BSD license) which is, imho a minor violation. I have seen
compiler companies make improvements to gcc, gdb and some other tools,
release only the binaries, and then make the unmodified sources
available claiming that the patches to them are proprietary. I can't
recall the name of the company, as this was a few years ago and the
company is long since dead. These things came up from time to time on
the gnu.discuss mailing list when I was reading it years ago.
Warner
