Add some details on exactly how to comply with the GPL
-Erik
This commit is contained in:
Eric Andersen
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<br><a href="/docs.html">Documentation</a>
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<br><a href="/products.html">Products</a>
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<br><a href="/shame.html">Hall of Shame</a>
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<br><a href="/license.html">License</a>
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<p><b>Related Sites</b>
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<br><a href="http://uclibc.org/">uClibc.org</a>
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docs/busybox.net/license.html
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docs/busybox.net/license.html
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<!--#include file="header.html" -->
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<h3>The GPL BusyBox license</h3>
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There has been some confusion in the past as to exactly what is
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required to safely distribute GPL'd software such as BusyBox as
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part of a product. To ensure that there is no confusion
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whatsoever, this page attempts to summarize what you should do to
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ensure you do not accidentally violate the law.
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<p>
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<p>
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BusyBox is licensed under the GNU General Public License , which
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is generally just abbreviated simply as the GPL license, or
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just the GPL. <a href="/products.html">Anyone thinking of shipping
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BusyBox as part of a product</a> should be familiar with the
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licensing terms under which they are allowed to use and
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distribute BusyBox. You are advised to take a look over the
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<ul>
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<li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html">full text of
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the GNU General Public License</a>, and
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<li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html">
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Frequently Asked Questions about the GNU GPL</a>
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</ul>
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to be sure you (and your lawyers) fully understand them.
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<p>
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The following is a quick summary for the impatient. If you
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carefully follow these steps, it will ensure that you are 100%
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authorized to ship BusyBox with your product, and have no reason
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to worry about lawsuits or being listed on the <a
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href="/shame.html">BusyBox Hall of Shame</a> page. You will be
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able to sleep peacefully at night knowing you have fulfilled all
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your licensing obligations.
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<p>
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If you distribute a product, it should either be accompanied by
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<b>full source for all GPL'd products</b> (including BusyBox)
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and/or a <b>written offer</b> to supply the source source for all
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GPL'd products for the cost of shipping and handling. The source
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has to be in its preferred machine readable form, so you cannot
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encrypt or obfuscate it. You are not required to provide full
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source for all the closed source applications that happen to be
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part of the system with BusyBox, though you can certainly do so
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if you feel like it. But providing source for the GPL licensed
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applications such as BusyBox is manditory.
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<p>
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<b>Accompanied by source</b> generally means you place the full
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source code for all GPL'd products such as BusyBox on a driver CD
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somewhere.
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<p>
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<b>A written offer</b> generally means that somewhere in the
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docs for your product, you write something like
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<blockquote>
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The GPL source code contained in this product is available as a
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free download from http://blah.blah.blah/
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</blockquote>
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Or you can offer source by writing
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somewhere in the docs for your product something like
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<blockquote>
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If you would like a copy of the GPL source code in this product
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on a CD, please send $9.99 to <address> for the costs of
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preparing and mailing a CD to you.
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</blockquote>
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<p>
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Keep in mind though that if you distribute GPL'd binaries online
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(as is often done when supplying firmware updates), you <b>must</b>
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make source available online and inform those downloading
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firmware updates of their right to obtain source.
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<p>
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Additionally, some people have the mistaken understanding that if
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they use unmodified GPL'd source code, they do not need to
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distribute anything. This belief is not correct, and is not
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supported by the text of the
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<a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html">text of GPL</a>.
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Please do re-read it, and you
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will find there is no such provision. If you distribute any GPL'd
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binaries, you must also make source available as discussed on
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this webpage.
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<p>
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These days, <a href="http://www.linksys.com/">Linksys</a> is
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doing a good job at complying with the GPL, they get to be an
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example of how to do things right. Please take a moment and
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check out what they do with
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<a href="http://www.linksys.com/download/firmware.asp?fwid=178">
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distributing the firmware for their WRT54G Router.</a>
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Following their example would be a fine way to ensure you have
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fulfilled your licensing obligations.
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<!--#include file="footer.html" -->
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@ -13,6 +13,9 @@ Hall of Shame.
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<p>
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Here are the details of <a href="/license.html">exactly how to comply
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with the BusyBox license</a>, so there should be no question as to
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exactly what is expected.
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Complying with the Busybox license is easy and completely free, so the
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companies listed below should be ashamed of themselves. Furthermore, each
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product listed here is subject to being legally ordered to cease and desist
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@ -24,14 +27,17 @@ than sue people. But he will sue if forced to do so to maintain compliance.
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Do everyone a favor and don't break the law -- if you use busybox, comply with
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the busybox license by releasing the source code with your product.
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</p>
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<p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="http://www.trendware.com/products/TEW-411BRP.htm">TRENDnet TEW-411BRP 54Mbps 802.11g Wireless AP Router with 4-Port Switch</a>
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<li><a href="http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/html/mvp.htm">Hauppauge Media MVP</a>
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<br>Hauppauge has contacted me and is working on resolving this problem.
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</li><li><a href="http://www.buffalo-technology.com/products/wireless/wbr-g54.htm">Buffalo WBR-G54 wireless router</a>
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</li><li><a href="http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=&Section_Id=201522&pcount=&Product_Id=136493">Belkin 54g Wireless DSL/Cable Gateway Router</a>
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</li><li><a href="http://www.dmmtv.com/">Dreambox DM7000S DVB Satellite Receiver</a>
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<br> Dream-Multimedia has contacted me and is working on resolving this problem.
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</li><li><a href="http://testing.lkml.org/slashdot.php?mid=331690">Sigma Designs EM8500 based DVD players</a>
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</li><li><a href="http://testing.lkml.org/slashdot.php?mid=433790">Liteon LVD2001 DVD player using the Sigma Designs EM8500</a>
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</li><li><a href="http://www.rimax.net/">Rimax DVD players using the Sigma Designs EM8500</a>
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