Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 03:17:04 -0800 From: Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> To: Hans Reiser <reiser@namesys.com> Cc: hiten@uk.FreeBSD.org, Greg Lehey <grog@FreeBSD.org>, Chris Mason <mason@suse.com>, Josh MacDonald <jmacd@CS.Berkeley.EDU>, Parity Error <bootup@mail.ru>, freebsd-fs@FreeBSD.org, reiserfs-dev@namesys.com Subject: Re: [reiserfs-dev]i Re: metadata update durability ordering/softupdates Message-ID: <3C9F0730.418A94BE@mindspring.com> References: <20020318174641.A1153@hpdi.ath.cx> <3C9676B4.49A76589@mindspring.com> <3C9E1DA4.1090703@namesys.com> <3C9E6E28.9D0B8778@mindspring.com> <3C9F0500.4050206@namesys.com>
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Hans Reiser wrote: > You aren't merely aggregating, you are compiling together and using > together, except of course that another poster says you don't really use > ext2fs code at all, so this is a moot point. I think by "compiled together", you mean "linking". But to use your terminology: BeOS is no more "compiling together and using together" the GPL'ed than Solaris is "compiled together and used together" with GCC when you install GCC on a Solaris system. The drivers run as programs. In the FreeBSD EXT2FS case, we *are NOT* "compiling together and using together" the code. That is the whole point of giving them the source code, and not distributing a kernel image that has been "compiled together" with the EXT2FS code, and which can not be "used together" with it, since the code was not compiled into it. By making it the responsibility of the user, it avoids the "copy and distribute" activity which is what triggers the license to cover the code with which it is "compiled together and used together". The user can perform this action themselves, at their option, just as they can compile and link and utilize any GPL'ed code they want to, on any system they want to. But by the nature of the licenses that the combined code would have to come under in order to be distributed, the combined code is not permitted to be distributed. The GPL is like "part B" of a binary nerve gas bomb. As long as you don't combine it with a "part A", there's no nerve gas, and no one gets hurt. -- Terry To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-fs" in the body of the message
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