Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2001 15:23:52 -0600 From: "Brad Morgan" <B-Morgan@concentric.net> To: "Joe Clarke" <marcus@marcuscom.com> Cc: "FreeBSD User Questions List" <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: OT License Question WAS: RE: BSD license question Message-ID: <NABBJOOEOFODEALNMJAJMENHEDAA.B-Morgan@concentric.net> In-Reply-To: <20010809160056.N31629-100000@shumai.marcuscom.com>
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The original owner released the software under the BSD license. One of the provisions of that license is that users are free to use the software in other, less permissively licensed products as long as the license requirements are met. The original BSD licensed sources cannot be re-distributed with a different source license, but the binaries produced from them, along with additional sources, can be licensed differently. For example, Microsoft using the BSD TCP/IP stack has to acknowledge that the product includes software developed by the University of California, Berkeley and its contributors (amoung other things). They are not required to distribute sources of the total work. The GPL license requires that the original software sources remain available along with the sources of any additions to the original software. If Microsoft had used the Linux TCP/IP stack instead, then they would be required to distribute the sources of Windows under the terms of the GPL. The source distribution of the software package in question may have to include both BSD and GPL licenses and clearly identify which modules belong to which license. Modifications to the BSD modules are still BSD licensed per the BSD. I agree with you that you can't take package Foo licensed with BSD and create an identical package Bar licensed with the GPL. Brad -----Original Message----- From: Joe Clarke [mailto:marcus@marcuscom.com] Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2001 2:02 PM To: Jonathan Fosburgh Cc: Brad Morgan; FreeBSD User Questions List Subject: Re: OT License Question WAS: RE: BSD license question Right, this I understand. The issue in question is that someone who is not the owner wants to relicense the software. Joe Clarke On Thu, 9 Aug 2001, Jonathan Fosburgh wrote: > At 01:16 PM 8/9/01 -0600, Brad Morgan wrote: > >It depends on how the license is written. The BSD license is less > >restrictive than the GPL license so you may be able to go BSD to GPL, but > >not GPL to BSD. > > > >I'm not a lawyer so don't take my word for it. Carefully examine the text > >of the licenses. > > > >Brad > > > > I am not a lawyer etc etc etc. But it is my understanding that the owner > of the copyright can, at any time change the license. Licenses restrict > users, not owners. I don't know who owns the product in question, but > whoever does could relicense it as GPL if they wish. xfmail used to be BSD > licensed, but the owner essentially gave it up and it is now GPL'd. > > > **************************************************************************** ** > Jonathan Fosburgh | Certified AIX Administrator > Software Systems Spec. III | ICQ: 32742908 > Communications and Computer Services | MSN: syjef@hotmail.com > UT MD Anderson Cancer Center | Jabber: syjef@jabber.org > Houston, TX | Yahoo: jefosburgh > **************************************************************************** ** > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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