From owner-freebsd-chat Mon Dec 17 18:32:23 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from riker.skynet.be (riker.skynet.be [195.238.3.132]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D91D037B41D for ; Mon, 17 Dec 2001 18:32:16 -0800 (PST) Received: from [10.0.1.39] (ip-27.shub-internet.org [194.78.144.27] (may be forged)) by riker.skynet.be (8.11.6/8.11.6/Skynet-OUT-2.16) with ESMTP id fBI2W2Y26892; Tue, 18 Dec 2001 03:32:03 +0100 (MET) (envelope-from ) Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Sender: bs663385@pop.skynet.be Message-Id: In-Reply-To: <20011218121011.E21649@monorchid.lemis.com> References: <20011218121011.E21649@monorchid.lemis.com> Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 03:30:46 +0100 To: Greg Lehey , FreeBSD Chat From: Brad Knowles Subject: Re: GPL nonsense: time to stop Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org At 12:10 PM +1030 on 2001/12/18, Greg Lehey wrote: >> If you link some GPL-covered code into the kernel, the GPL's >> conditions will apply to the kernel as a whole. > > But only to that kernel, which is a binary. The only effect the GPL > has on a binary is to require the supplier to also supply the source > code on request. I can't imagine that we'd have problems with that. We might not, but the BSD license allows people to take the code and turn it into a proprietary, closed-source project. That would no longer be possible for anyone who wanted to use a GPL-infested BSD. For example, this would almost certainly have killed the Whistle InterJet, as well as many other commercial projects using BSD. Yes, projects like this can contribute source code back, and frequently do -- but it's their choice as to what they contribute and what they keep private. -- Brad Knowles, H4sICIFgXzsCA2RtYS1zaWcAPVHLbsMwDDvXX0H0kkvbfxiwVw8FCmzAzqqj1F4dy7CdBfn7 Kc6wmyGRFEnvvxiWQoCvqI7RSWTcfGXQNqCUAnfIU+AT8OZ/GCNjRVlH0bKpguJkxiITZqes MxwpSucyDJzXxQEUe/ihgXqJXUXwD9ajB6NHonLmNrUSK9nacHQnH097szO74xFXqtlbT3il wMsBz5cnfCR5cEmci0Rj9u/jqBbPeES1I4PeFBXPUIT1XDSOuutFXylzrQvGyboWstCoQZyP dxX4dLx0eauFe1x9puhoi0Ao1omEJo+BZ6XLVNaVpWiKekxN0VK2VMpmAy+Bk7ZV4SO+p1L/ uErNRS/qH2iFU+iNOtbcmVt9N16lfF7tLv9FXNj8AiyNcOi1AQAA To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message