Date: Mon, 05 May 2008 09:55:22 -0700 From: "Kevin Oberman" <oberman@es.net> To: kevin <hlwhyw@81890.net> Cc: freebsd-net@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Is it possible to change BSD licence to GPL for 4.4BSD-Lite's source code? Message-ID: <20080505165522.6D92145010@ptavv.es.net> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sun, 04 May 2008 23:56:33 %2B0800." <001b01c8adff$6cd4cbd0$5084183a@honglan>
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--==_Exmh_1210006522_38027P Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline > Date: Sun, 04 May 2008 23:56:33 +0800 > From: kevin <hlwhyw@81890.net> > Sender: owner-freebsd-net@freebsd.org > > Hi, all > I want to port 4.4BSD-Lite's TCP/IP source code to my own OS kernel. > My OS kernel is GPL licenced. > Is it possible for me to modify 4.4BSD-Lite's source code and change > its licence from 4.4BSD-Lite licence to GPL licence? I am not a lawyer, but it is generally not possible to re-license BSD code to GPL. It might be possible, with the permission of the code's author(s), to dual license it under both BSD and GPL. It is unclear to me why adding BSD code to a GPL OS would violate any of the terms of either license as ling as you maintain the copyright notice for the BSD code and follow the GPL redistribution rules and other conditions. I don't believe that anything in GPL prohibits the use of non-GPL code as long as the terms of the GPL are adhered to. Finally, 4.4BSD-Lite is very, very old and lacks a great many features needed in a modern network stack. I really don't see why you would want to do this. -- R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) E-mail: oberman@es.net Phone: +1 510 486-8634 Key fingerprint:059B 2DDF 031C 9BA3 14A4 EADA 927D EBB3 987B 3751 --==_Exmh_1210006522_38027P Content-Type: application/pgp-signature -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.9 (FreeBSD) Comment: Exmh version 2.5 06/03/2002 iD8DBQFIHzv6kn3rs5h7N1ERAqjSAJ0cfSzSXCAz5RYQxZGoJq4LaqS4jACeJR1D GbUeJKddzy1pr/xPbfXxo/0= =tRo3 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --==_Exmh_1210006522_38027P--
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