109 lines
3.8 KiB
HTML
109 lines
3.8 KiB
HTML
|
<!--#include file="header.html" -->
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<h3>The GPL BusyBox license</h3>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
There has been some confusion in the past as to exactly what is
|
||
|
|
required to safely distribute GPL'd software such as BusyBox as
|
||
|
|
part of a product. To ensure that there is no confusion
|
||
|
|
whatsoever, this page attempts to summarize what you should do to
|
||
|
|
ensure you do not accidentally violate the law.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
BusyBox is licensed under the GNU General Public License , which
|
||
|
|
is generally just abbreviated simply as the GPL license, or
|
||
|
|
just the GPL. <a href="/products.html">Anyone thinking of shipping
|
||
|
|
BusyBox as part of a product</a> should be familiar with the
|
||
|
|
licensing terms under which they are allowed to use and
|
||
|
|
distribute BusyBox. You are advised to take a look over the
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<ul>
|
||
|
|
<li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html">full text of
|
||
|
|
the GNU General Public License</a>, and
|
||
|
|
<li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html">
|
||
|
|
Frequently Asked Questions about the GNU GPL</a>
|
||
|
|
</ul>
|
||
|
|
to be sure you (and your lawyers) fully understand them.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
The following is a quick summary for the impatient. If you
|
||
|
|
carefully follow these steps, it will ensure that you are 100%
|
||
|
|
authorized to ship BusyBox with your product, and have no reason
|
||
|
|
to worry about lawsuits or being listed on the <a
|
||
|
|
href="/shame.html">BusyBox Hall of Shame</a> page. You will be
|
||
|
|
able to sleep peacefully at night knowing you have fulfilled all
|
||
|
|
your licensing obligations.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
If you distribute a product, it should either be accompanied by
|
||
|
|
<b>full source for all GPL'd products</b> (including BusyBox)
|
||
|
|
and/or a <b>written offer</b> to supply the source source for all
|
||
|
|
GPL'd products for the cost of shipping and handling. The source
|
||
|
|
has to be in its preferred machine readable form, so you cannot
|
||
|
|
encrypt or obfuscate it. You are not required to provide full
|
||
|
|
source for all the closed source applications that happen to be
|
||
|
|
part of the system with BusyBox, though you can certainly do so
|
||
|
|
if you feel like it. But providing source for the GPL licensed
|
||
|
|
applications such as BusyBox is manditory.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<b>Accompanied by source</b> generally means you place the full
|
||
|
|
source code for all GPL'd products such as BusyBox on a driver CD
|
||
|
|
somewhere.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<b>A written offer</b> generally means that somewhere in the
|
||
|
|
docs for your product, you write something like
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>
|
||
|
|
The GPL source code contained in this product is available as a
|
||
|
|
free download from http://blah.blah.blah/
|
||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
Or you can offer source by writing
|
||
|
|
somewhere in the docs for your product something like
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>
|
||
|
|
If you would like a copy of the GPL source code in this product
|
||
|
|
on a CD, please send $9.99 to <address> for the costs of
|
||
|
|
preparing and mailing a CD to you.
|
||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Keep in mind though that if you distribute GPL'd binaries online
|
||
|
|
(as is often done when supplying firmware updates), you <b>must</b>
|
||
|
|
make source available online and inform those downloading
|
||
|
|
firmware updates of their right to obtain source.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Additionally, some people have the mistaken understanding that if
|
||
|
|
they use unmodified GPL'd source code, they do not need to
|
||
|
|
distribute anything. This belief is not correct, and is not
|
||
|
|
supported by the text of the
|
||
|
|
<a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html">text of GPL</a>.
|
||
|
|
Please do re-read it, and you
|
||
|
|
will find there is no such provision. If you distribute any GPL'd
|
||
|
|
binaries, you must also make source available as discussed on
|
||
|
|
this webpage.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
These days, <a href="http://www.linksys.com/">Linksys</a> is
|
||
|
|
doing a good job at complying with the GPL, they get to be an
|
||
|
|
example of how to do things right. Please take a moment and
|
||
|
|
check out what they do with
|
||
|
|
<a href="http://www.linksys.com/download/firmware.asp?fwid=178">
|
||
|
|
distributing the firmware for their WRT54G Router.</a>
|
||
|
|
Following their example would be a fine way to ensure you have
|
||
|
|
fulfilled your licensing obligations.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<!--#include file="footer.html" -->
|
||
|
|
|