From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Jun 8 15:40:11 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9A93416A4CE for ; Tue, 8 Jun 2004 15:40:11 +0000 (GMT) Received: from internet.potentialtech.com (h-66-167-251-6.phlapafg.covad.net [66.167.251.6]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6BA1743D49 for ; Tue, 8 Jun 2004 15:40:11 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from wmoran@potentialtech.com) Received: from working.potentialtech.com (pa-plum1c-102.pit.adelphia.net [24.53.179.102]) by internet.potentialtech.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9023869A7E; Tue, 8 Jun 2004 11:40:07 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2004 11:40:06 -0400 From: Bill Moran To: Jason Richmond Message-Id: <20040608114006.7beb4e5b.wmoran@potentialtech.com> In-Reply-To: <20040608152313.96157.qmail@web41311.mail.yahoo.com> References: <20040608152313.96157.qmail@web41311.mail.yahoo.com> Organization: Potential Technologies X-Mailer: Sylpheed version 0.9.10 (GTK+ 1.2.10; i386-portbld-freebsd4.9) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Legal question regarding products built with FreeBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 08 Jun 2004 15:40:11 -0000 Jason Richmond wrote: > To Whom it May Concern, > > I have built a NAS product that uses FreeBSD. I have customized the kernel > and built a custom web interface. After reading through the FreeBSD legal > section I am fairly certain that distribution of this product does not violate > any licenses. Is there any way that I can verify that this is the case? I > plan on having an attorney review this information. However, I thought that > contacting FreeBSD directly would keep me from overlooking anything important. Legal disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, so this does not represent legal advice. I am not an official representative of FreeBSD, so my opinions are not the opinions of the FreeBSD or any related project. With that out of the way. No, you're not violating anything legally, doing what you say. I think I can speak for many FreeBSDers when I say: I hope your project is successful and lucrative. You are not obligated, legally or otherwise, to give anything back to the FreeBSD community if you are successful, in fact, you don't even have to admit to your customers that your product runs FreeBSD. However, we hope you will share your success with the FreeBSD community by proudly announcing that your product is based on FreeBSD, and donating some of the profits you make back to the community by doing such things as sponsoring developers such as Poul-Henning Kamp, or donating money or hardware to the FreeBSD Foundation. If you don't, however, at least come back and tell the FreeBSD community about your success, so we can feel good about what we've done. :) -- Bill Moran Potential Technologies http://www.potentialtech.com