Redo the license section completely, and update the header to group the tabs.
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Rob Landley
parent
cddba6c61f
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@ -43,19 +43,31 @@
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<tr>
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<td valign="TOP">
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<br><a href="/news.html">Latest News</a>
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<br><a href="/about.html">About</a>
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<br>Documentation:
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<ul><li><a href="/FAQ.html">FAQ</a></li><li><a href="downloads/BusyBox.html>Manual</a></li><li><a href="downloads/README">README</a></li></ul>
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<br><a href="/download.html">Download</a>
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<br><a href="/screenshot.html">Screenshot</a>
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<br><a href="/lists.html">Mailing Lists</a>
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<br><a href="/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/trunk/busybox/">Browse Source</a>
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<br><a href="/subversion.html">Accessing Source</a>
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<br><a href="http://bugs.busybox.net/">Bug Tracking</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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<b>About</b>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="/about.html">About BusyBox</a></li>
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<li><a href="/screenshot.html">Screenshot</a></li>
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<li><a href="/news.html">Latest News</a></li>
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</ul>
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<b>Documentation</b>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="/FAQ.html">FAQ</a></li>
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<li><a href="downloads/BusyBox.html>Command Help</a></li>
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<li><a href="downloads/README">README</a></li>
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</ul>
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<b>Development</b>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/trunk/busybox/">Browse Source</a></li>
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<li><a href="/subversion.html">Source Control</a></li>
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<li><a href="/lists.html">Mailing Lists</a></li>
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<li><a href="http://bugs.busybox.net/">Bug Tracking</a></li>
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</ul>
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<b>Get BusyBox</b>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="/download.html">Download Source</a></li>
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<li><a href="/license.html">License</a></li>
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<li><a href="/products.html">Products</a></li>
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</ul>
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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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@ -1,135 +1,57 @@
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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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<h3>Complying with the BusyBox license is easy and completely free.</h3>
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U.S. and International Law protects copyright owners from the unauthorized
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reproduction, adaptation, display, distribution, etc of copyright protected
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works. Copyright violations (such as shipping BusyBox in a manner contrary to
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its license) are subject to severe penalties. The courts can award up to
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$150,000 per product shipped without even showing any actual loss by the
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copyright holder. Criminal penalties are available for intentional acts
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undertaken for purposes of "commercial advantage" or "private financial gain."
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In addition, if it comes to my attention that you are violating the BusyBox
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license, I will list you on the <a href="/shame.html">BusyBox Hall of Shame</a>
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webpage.
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<p>
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Nobody wants that to happen. Do everyone a favor and don't break the law -- if
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you use BusyBox, you <b>must comply with the BusyBox license</b>.
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<p>
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<h3>BusyBox is licensed under the GNU General Public License</h3>
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BusyBox is licensed under the GNU General Public License , which
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is generally just abbreviated as the GPL license, or
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just the GPL.
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<p>
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<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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<p>BusyBox is licensed under <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html#SEC1">the
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GNU General Public License</a> version 2 or later, which is generally
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abbreviated as the GPL. (This is the same license the Linux kernel is under,
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so you may be somewhat familiar with it by now.)</p>
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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><a href="/products.html">Anyone thinking of shipping BusyBox as part of a
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product</a> should be familiar with the licensing terms under which they are
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allowed to use and distribute BusyBox. Read the full test of the GPL (either
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through the above link, or in the file LICENSE in the busybox tarball), and
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also read the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html">Frequently
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Asked Questions about the GPL</a>.</p>
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<p>
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<p>Basically, if you distribute GPL software the license requires that you also
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distribute the source code to that GPL-licensed software. So if you distribute
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BusyBox without making the source code to the version you distribute available,
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you violate the license terms, and thus infringe on the copyrights of BusyBox.
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(This requirement applies whether or not you modified BusyBox; either way the
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license terms still apply to you.) Read the license text for the details.</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>BusyBox's copyrights are enforced by the <a
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href="http://www.softwarefreedom.org">Software Freedom Law Center</a>, which
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"accepts primary responsibility for enforcement of US copyrights on the
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software... and coordinates international copyright enforcement efforts for
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such works as necessary." If you distribute BusyBox in a way that doesn't
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comply with the terms of the license BusyBox is distributed under, expect to
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hear from these guys. Their entire reason for existing is to do pro-bono
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legal work for free/open source software projects. (We used to list people who
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violate the BusyBox license in <a href="/shame.html">The Hall of Shame</a>,
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but these days we find it much more effective to hand them over to the
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lawyers.)</p>
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<p>
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<p>Our enforcement efforts are aimed at bringing people into compliance with
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the BusyBox license. Open source software is under a different license from
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proprietary software, but if you violate that license you're still a software
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pirate and the law gives the vendor (us) some big sticks to play with. We
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don't want monetary awards, injunctions, or to generate bad PR for a company,
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unless that's the only way to get somebody that repeatedly ignores us to comply
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with the license on our code.</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 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 mandatory.
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<p>
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<b>Accompanied by source</b> generally means you distribute the full
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source code for all GPL'd products including BusyBox along with your
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product, such as by placing it somewhere on a driver CD. Full source
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code includes the BusyBox ".config" file used when your shipping BusyBox
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binary was compiled, and any and all modifications you made to the
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BusyBox source code.
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<p>
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<b>A written offer</b> generally means that somewhere in the
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documentation 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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Alternatively, you can offer the source code by writing
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somewhere in the documentation 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 contained in this
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product shipped to you on CD, please send $9.99 to <address>
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which covers the cost of 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 (as is often
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done when supplying firmware updates), it is <b>highly</b> recommended that you
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make the corresponding source available online at the same place. Regardless,
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if you distribute a binary copy of BusyBox online (such as part of a firmware
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update) you <b>must</b> either make source available online (i.e.
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<b>accompanied by source</b>) and/or inform those downloading firmware updates
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of their right to obtain source (i.e. <b>a written offer</b>). Failure to do
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so is a violation of your licensing obligations.
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<p>
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Some people have the mistaken understanding that if they use unmodified
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GPL'd source code, they do not need to distribute anything. This belief
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is not correct, and is not supported by 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 -- you will find there is no such provision.
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If you distribute any GPL'd binaries, you must also make source available
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as discussed on this webpage.
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<p>
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<h3>A Good Example</h3>
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These days, <a href="http://www.linksys.com/">Linksys</a> is
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<p>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/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Content_C1&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1115416836002&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper">
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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 that you
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have also fulfilled your licensing obligations.
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have also fulfilled your licensing obligations.</p>
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<!--#include file="footer.html" -->
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