From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Jul 27 09:29:46 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5A043106566C for ; Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:29:46 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from ryu.planka@gmail.com) Received: from mail-bw0-f219.google.com (mail-bw0-f219.google.com [209.85.218.219]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D8EC48FC1F for ; Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:29:45 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from ryu.planka@gmail.com) Received: by bwz19 with SMTP id 19so2408712bwz.43 for ; Mon, 27 Jul 2009 02:29:44 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:date:message-id:subject :from:to:content-type; bh=56UrG7QDuhJMC/Yki3gYWxl+wicyyWDD/HvS0lQ5QlM=; b=Ejz7A6hbRbRUsgCJTtp4SdAFFN/wa/y+Mt/FHZYE8pcIedkcmSSYhbbmAI6Ceik6wc lcO7yL+c7obG3oAL4fcAPl0WHP3a9AS41E5TVcwtDlETn44pLxbeyo/jSD0VMJBEBxb8 MHIbWqDIw8D2AFLTv8A8fh8RGxkIrWBNDycjs= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:date:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type; b=l9RoMgFG8Ith9bSH2qbGIpN9twpQk31wE2AjMj9tZpbCkvj/3iUdSpyvQlbmN2I3+U cjZnphLVoeavxRW5lIJ+w1rGxV+9ChDIfvhMPoZtRJexKXBwgF2YvaHFFTmULJFmq2hB 1k65F8nQmHUMuVj4ortzhgh33qKk2Z57/Ww4w= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.204.116.69 with SMTP id l5mr2858366bkq.102.1248685094750; Mon, 27 Jul 2009 01:58:14 -0700 (PDT) Date: Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:58:14 +0300 Message-ID: From: son goku To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Subject: source code licensing questions X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:29:47 -0000 Hi all, I am a part of a team that is planning to open a start-up company. We plan to ship a revolutionary storage controller. We are now investigating possible OS for the product. The choices that we came up with are either LINUX or Free-BSD. I am strongly biased toward Free-BSD, however I still need to understand the licensing impacts of using a Free-BSD kernel. Browsing the web about the BSD license just made me confused. Seems like to understand these licensing issues you must be a lawyer. I got the following questions regarding source license: 1.Do I need to open the source code for my product if I use the BSD kernel as part of the product? 2.If I do some kernel changes, do I need to open those changes as well? 3.What about Dtrace, if I use DTrace will I need to open code that use it? 4.Suppose the answer for 1-3 is no, s there any other reason why I need to open the code. Please understand that my questions stem from the fact that we are afraid of exposing our source code, especially during the first phases of the project. It is more than possible, that we will re-consider our approach in later stages and open some or all our code to the community. Thanks!!