Date: Tue, 30 Jul 1996 22:56:31 -0600 (MDT) From: Nate Williams <nate@mt.sri.com> To: "Philip Chan" <philipch@STDIM.xstor.com> Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: question on GNU general public license Message-ID: <199607310456.WAA00616@rocky.mt.sri.com> In-Reply-To: <9606308387.AA838787964@STDIM.XSTOR.COM> References: <9606308387.AA838787964@STDIM.XSTOR.COM>
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Philip Chan writes: > Hi, > > I have some questions on the GNU general public license. Read the copyleft, and/or have a lawyer look at it. Depending on the opinions of programmers is fraught with peril. :) > 1. If I developed an application program that runs on BSD system, > do I need to send my application source code to the user (my > customers)? Why are you asking the BSD developers about the GNU license? We're using the BSD license, not the GNU license. Have your lawyer review the BSD license as well and have him/her point out the differences. But, as a programmer my answer is 'NO', but if you link against the GNU libraries (anything whose sources lives in /usr/src/gnu/lib), you may have to provide 'source and object' code to the libraries, which are supplied by handing them a FreeBSD CD. Or, if you don't use the GNU libraries you can simply give them a binary. > 2. If I developed a disk driver that load into the BSD system, do I > need to send my driver source code to the user (my customer)? If you don't use any of the code in /sys/gnu (probably not), then no. > The above 2 cases assumes that I have made no change to the BSD > src, I just use the existing interface published by BSD. It wouldn't matter, as long as you don't use any GNU-tainted sources. > 3. What if I modify the BSD to support my API. I developed a driver > using my API. Now, I need to send the source code of the modified BSD > to my customer, do I need to send them the source code of the driver I > developed which use the new API I add? The BSD copyright is very different than the GNU copyright, and my opinion on the GNU license clouds my judgement so I won't answer the questions as if a GNU system were involved. Nate
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