Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2004 02:37:31 -0800 From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com> To: "Amit Pandey" <amitpandey.ent@gmail.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: RE: GPU / GPL Message-ID: <LOBBIFDAGNMAMLGJJCKNAEMEEPAA.tedm@toybox.placo.com>
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Amit, There really isn't one because of the nature of the FreeBSD project. Everything that makes up FreeBSD including the documentation of it is licensed under either the GPL/GNU license or the BSD license, or some variant license that is similar to BSD. For example the documentation for FreeBSD which includes everything on the website, has a license that is here: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/LEGALNOTICE.html For each version of FreeBSD, there is a file installed in the root of the version named COPYRIGHT that starts out like this: $ cat COPYRIGHT # $FreeBSD: src/COPYRIGHT,v 1.4.24.1 2004/04/30 12:50:48 kensmith Exp $ # @(#)COPYRIGHT 8.2 (Berkeley) 3/21/94 The compilation of software known as FreeBSD is distributed under the following terms: followed by a bunch of copyright notices for all organizations and firms and such that have given permission to FreeBSD to use things. While in general these licenses are non-restrictive, it is YOUR problem to determine if you are infringing any of them in your products. For example, one of the items in the FreeBSD 4.10 copyright reads: "...The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the American National Standards Committee X3, on Information Processing Systems have given us permission to reprint portions of their documentation..." This means in effect that IEEE and ANSI aren't going to allow you to lift their stuff out of FreeBSD to use on your site - but they have given permission to you to redistribute their stuff that is embedded within FreeBSD. Similarly to this, the C compiler that is used by FreeBSD is GCC and that is under the GPL license. Same deal there - just because the FreeBSD license allows you to use FreeBSD code in a commercial product, that does not change the license for GCC. So in summary, what it boils down to is that the people within the FreeBSD project that could actually research all this for you once you tell them what you intend on doing, and tell you if your going to infringe something or not, these people don't work for free and they are probably too busy to do it anyway. Your going to have to do it yourself which means you need to learn a lot more about FreeBSD than you obviously know at this point. This list can give you some opinions, but you need to explain what your SPECIFICALLY wanting to do. And in the long run, whether you use our opinions, form your own, or hire someone to give you some, this isn't an issue where it is possible to get a blanket approval from one person over the entire FreeBSD project. This is an issue where you have to look at FreeBSD, look at what your wanting to do with it, figure out what parts of it you need to do that, then decide if your going to step on anyone's toes. Ted > -----Original Message----- > From: Amit Pandey [mailto:amitpandey.ent@gmail.com] > Sent: Sunday, January 13, 1980 5:47 AM > To: Ted Mittelstaedt > Subject: Re: GPU / GPL > > > can you give me the correct email then > > Amit > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com> > To: "Amit Pandey" <amitpandey.ent@gmail.com>; > <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> > Sent: Monday, December 13, 2004 11:06 PM > Subject: RE: GPU / GPL > > > > > > You got the wrong e-mail address, FreeBSD isn't a version of Linux. > > And, nobody that gets mail to this e-mail address can give you any > > permission to do anything anyway. > > > > Ted > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > From: owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org > > > [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org]On Behalf Of Amit Pandey > > > Sent: Sunday, January 13, 1980 5:29 AM > > > To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org > > > Subject: GPU / GPL > > > > > > > > > Hi > > > > > > Thinking of adding your version of Linux to my product base , can > > > i do this as well as using any documentation and logos on your > > > site - referring to your site with all texts / logos used > > > > > > Amit > > > _______________________________________________ > > > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > > > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > > > To unsubscribe, send any mail to > > > "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" > > > > >
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