Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2000 13:22:11 -0700 From: R Joseph Wright <rjoseph@mammalia.org> To: freebsd-questions <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org> Subject: Re: BSD license questions Message-ID: <20000907132211.C21037@mammalia.org> In-Reply-To: <20000907150420.A27259@dan.emsphone.com>; from dnelson@emsphone.com on Thu, Sep 07, 2000 at 03:04:20PM -0500 References: <20000907115433.A19971@mammalia.org> <20000907150420.A27259@dan.emsphone.com>
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And Dan Nelson spoke: > In the last episode (Sep 07), R Joseph Wright said: > > Does the BSD license make it so that, even if a proprietary (binary > > only) piece of software is derived from BSD, that software must be > > freely distributable by anyone? That is the impression I get by > > reading this section of the license: > > nope. > > > Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without > > modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions > > are met: > > 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright > > notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. > > This means that /if/ you distribute source, you have to copy the > license along with the source (i.e. you can't remove the license or > make it GPL, for example). You are not required to distribute source. > > > 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright > > notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in > > the documentation and/or other materials provided with the > > distribution. > > This means /if/ you distribute binaries, you have to put the license > somewhere in the docs. It does not require you to provide source to > the binaries. > > You can choose to distribute only source, only binaries, both, or > neither. Although the last case isn't much use to anyone. What I was getting at is that if you choose to distribute it as binary only, the license that you must include in the docs states that it may be redistributed in binary form. Thus, it appears to say that anyone who has a copy of the binary may also redistribute that binary. But, as Alfred replied, the license only goes one level deep. The software can be relicensed with proprietary terms although it must include a copy of the original BSD license stating its origins. Is this correct? Joseph To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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