Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2002 16:18:43 -0800 From: Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> To: Greg 'groggy' Lehey <grog@FreeBSD.org> Cc: hiten@uk.FreeBSD.org, Hans Reiser <reiser@namesys.com>, Chris Mason <mason@suse.com>, Josh MacDonald <jmacd@CS.Berkeley.EDU>, Parity Error <bootup@mail.ru>, freebsd-fs@FreeBSD.org, reiserfs-dev@namesys.com Subject: Re: [reiserfs-dev] Re: metadata update durability ordering/soft updates Message-ID: <3C9683E3.C6A97916@mindspring.com> References: <3C9650C6.4010303@namesys.com> <20020318195817.26106.qmail@web21105.mail.yahoo.com> <20020319094935.B93909@wantadilla.lemis.com>
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Greg 'groggy' Lehey wrote: > > Apart from that, there would be no issue in porting ReiserFS to > > FreeBSD. One more question, if the booting part of ReiserFS was > > re-written in the BSD License, would there be any issues still > > existing? :-) > > Why would you want to do that? I think his theory is that if the loader were to load the FreeBSD kernel and the module seperately, such that the link was not done by the vendor, it would get around the GPL "linked with" propagation clause. This is not true. Modules have to be linked against the kernel into which they are loaded for symbol relocation purposes. By making this automatic, you are in the same legal boat as if you had linked the kernel and the loader at system install-from-cdrom time, in order to get around the license. You can not legally get around the license this way. If you make the user do this manually, without automating it for them, then you can get around the license, because it is the user, not an instrumentality of you (e.g. you personally, or software under your control) which does the linking, thereby bringing in the license burden. Actually, the FSF took a company to court on this for a cryptosystem. The issue was settled out of court by the company in question writing additional code to ensure that the glue code on their end of the software was not a derivative work of the GPL'ed code. The principle is the same. -- Terry To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-fs" in the body of the message
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