From owner-freebsd-net@FreeBSD.ORG Mon May 5 18:22:23 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-net@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 17D8E10656AE for ; Mon, 5 May 2008 18:22:23 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from julian@elischer.org) Received: from outE.internet-mail-service.net (oute.internet-mail-service.net [216.240.47.228]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F36918FC23 for ; Mon, 5 May 2008 18:22:22 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from julian@elischer.org) Received: from mx0.idiom.com (HELO idiom.com) (216.240.32.160) by out.internet-mail-service.net (qpsmtpd/0.40) with ESMTP; Mon, 05 May 2008 19:24:07 -0700 Received: from julian-mac.elischer.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by idiom.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0B00C2D601B; Mon, 5 May 2008 11:22:21 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <481F505F.5010103@elischer.org> Date: Mon, 05 May 2008 11:22:23 -0700 From: Julian Elischer User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.12 (Macintosh/20080213) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Kip Macy References: <424543f9f5.3f9f542454@shtel.net.cn> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit 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? X-BeenThere: freebsd-net@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Networking and TCP/IP with FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 05 May 2008 18:22:23 -0000 Kip Macy wrote: > On Sun, May 4, 2008 at 6:32 AM, 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"