Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1999 12:56:56 +1030 From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: "Jonathan M. Bresler" <jmb@FreeBSD.ORG>, green@unixhelp.org Cc: mark@grondar.za, donegan@quick.net, scrappy@hub.org, dcs@newsguy.com, current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: GPL (was: HEADS UP: Postfix is coming. new uid, gid required.) Message-ID: <19990101125656.C41841@freebie.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <199901010217.SAA20264@hub.freebsd.org>; from Jonathan M. Bresler on Thu, Dec 31, 1998 at 06:17:33PM -0800 References: <Pine.BSF.4.05.9812312056180.3621-100000@janus.syracuse.net> <199901010217.SAA20264@hub.freebsd.org>
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On Thursday, 31 December 1998 at 18:17:33 -0800, Jonathan M. Bresler wrote: >> Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1998 21:01:32 -0500 (EST) >> From: Brian Feldman <green@unixhelp.org> >> >> The GPL works fine with FreeBSD, we have a src/gnu, if you don't remember. The >> only major caveats with GPL are (as I see it) that: >> 1. We don't want GPL stuff in the kernel, hence the EXTREMELY few >> GPL drivers. (the GPL'd math emulator, and one other...) >> 2. GPL does not necessarily mean good. Not all the standard GNU >> utilities are good, nor even as good as the BSD predecessors. >> The GPL does not prevent us from including exim because: >> 1. We keep the source open, and changes public. >> 2. We don't change the license (we can't), so we don't violate the GPL. >> >> If you can find any fault in including exim, state it. > > can a company take FreeBSD, including exim, make modifications and > sell the result. several companies to this. the gnat box, nokia, > whistle and others. > > if they can, i have misunderstood, that would be my fault. The only way to have any kind of certainty about this would be a court decision, and even that would be valid only for a certain geographical area. The way I see it, the decision is whether the GPL'd part of the software is indivisible from the rest. Otherwise you take FreeBSD, including exim, make modifications and sell the result, explicitly excluding exim from the part of the software which has been bought (``also includes--*free*--exim and all those GNU packages you know and love''). Last September, Stallman was bitching about people like Caldera who sell their product and put GNU utilities on the same CD-ROM. But I don't see anybody getting sued for this kind of thing, and I think it's rather unlikely that they will. Greg -- See complete headers for address, home page and phone numbers finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
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