Date: Mon, 05 May 2008 11:22:23 -0700 From: Julian Elischer <julian@elischer.org> To: Kip Macy <kip.macy@gmail.com> Cc: hlwhyw@shtel.net.cn, freebsd-net@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Can I port 4.4BSD-Lite's TCP/IP protocol stack soure code to my own OS kernel which is GPL Licenced? Message-ID: <481F505F.5010103@elischer.org> In-Reply-To: <b1fa29170805051100k71a04ad7ud6592ce9e1856efd@mail.gmail.com> References: <424543f9f5.3f9f542454@shtel.net.cn> <b1fa29170805051100k71a04ad7ud6592ce9e1856efd@mail.gmail.com>
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Kip Macy wrote: > On Sun, May 4, 2008 at 6:32 AM, <hlwhyw@shtel.net.cn> wrote: >> Hi, all >> >> Can I port 4.4BSD-Lite's TCP/IP protocol stack soure code to my own OS kernel which is GPL Licence? >> >> I know that 4.4BSD-Lite is BSD Licenced. Is it legal to port BSD Licenced code and change it to GPL licence? > > Yes. BSD licensed code can, by definition, be included in software > with any license. The only restriction is that you cannot change the > license of the code without permission of the copyright holder. > However, I see no reason to do that. so, the full answer is: From the BSD perspective, you can use the code as long as you don't change the copyright or say that you wrote it. We don't care what you link it with.. However from the GPL perspective, they will not let you link the BSD code with GPL code because they will not allow "additional limitations" and there is a clause in the BSD 4.4.-lite copyright that they consider to be an additional limitation. (The advertising clause). Some of the newer BSD code has dropped that clause and teh UC regents have announced they have released users from one of the clauses so it may be better to look at more up to date versions of the code. I do understand however that the original code is smaller and cleaner. > > -Kip > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-net@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-net > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-net-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"
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