mirror of
https://github.com/sheumann/hush.git
synced 2024-11-05 06:07:00 +00:00
98 lines
5.3 KiB
HTML
98 lines
5.3 KiB
HTML
<!--#include file="header.html" -->
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<h3>BusyBox is licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 2</h3>
|
|
|
|
<p>BusyBox is licensed under <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html#SEC1">the
|
|
GNU General Public License</a> version 2, which is often abbreviated as GPLv2.
|
|
(This is the same license the Linux kernel is under, so you may be somewhat
|
|
familiar with it by now.)</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>A complete copy of the license text is included in the file LICENSE in
|
|
the BusyBox source code.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><a href="/products.html">Anyone thinking of shipping BusyBox as part of a
|
|
product</a> should be familiar with the licensing terms under which they are
|
|
allowed to use and distribute BusyBox. Read the full test of the GPL (either
|
|
through the above link, or in the file LICENSE in the busybox tarball), and
|
|
also read the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html">Frequently
|
|
Asked Questions about the GPL</a>.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Basically, if you distribute GPL software the license requires that you also
|
|
distribute the source code to that GPL-licensed software. So if you distribute
|
|
BusyBox without making the source code to the version you distribute available,
|
|
you violate the license terms, and thus infringe on the copyrights of BusyBox.
|
|
(This requirement applies whether or not you modified BusyBox; either way the
|
|
license terms still apply to you.) Read the license text for the details.</p>
|
|
|
|
<h3>A note on GPL versions</h3>
|
|
|
|
<p>Version 2 of the GPL is the only version of the GPL which current versions
|
|
of BusyBox may be distributed under. New code added to the tree is licensed
|
|
GPL version 2, and the project's license is GPL version 2.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Older versions of BusyBox (versions 1.2.2 and earlier, up through about svn
|
|
16112) included variants of the recommended "GPL version 2 or (at your option)
|
|
later versions" boilerplate permission grant. Ancient versions of BusyBox
|
|
(before svn 49) did not specify any version at all, and section 9 of GPLv2
|
|
(the most recent version at the time) says those old versions may be
|
|
redistributed under any version of GPL (including the obsolete V1). This was
|
|
conceptually similar to a dual license, except that the different licenses were
|
|
different versions of the GPL.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>However, BusyBox has apparently always contained chunks of code that were
|
|
licensed under GPL version 2 only. Examples include applets written by Linus
|
|
Torvalds (util-linux/mkfs_minix.c and util_linux/mkswap.c) which stated they
|
|
"may be redistributed as per the Linux copyright" (which Linus clarified in the
|
|
2.4.0-pre8 release announcement in 2000 was GPLv2 only), and Linux kernel code
|
|
copied into libbb/loop.c (after Linus's announcement). There are probably
|
|
more, because all we used to check was that the code was GPL, not which
|
|
version. (Before the GPLv3 draft proceedings in 2006, it was a purely
|
|
theoretical issue that didn't come up much.)</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>To summarize: every version of BusyBox may be distributed under the terms of
|
|
GPL version 2. New versions (after 1.2.2) may <b>only</b> be distributed under
|
|
GPLv2, not under other versions of the GPL. Older versions of BusyBox might
|
|
(or might not) be distributable under other versions of the GPL. If you
|
|
want to use a GPL version other than 2, you should start with one of the old
|
|
versions such as release 1.2.2 or SVN 16112, and do your own homework to
|
|
identify and remove any code that can't be licensed under the GPL version you
|
|
want to use. New development is all GPLv2.</p>
|
|
|
|
<h3>License enforcement</h3>
|
|
|
|
<p>BusyBox's copyrights are enforced by the <a
|
|
href="http://www.softwarefreedom.org">Software Freedom Law Center</a>
|
|
(you can contact them at gpl@busybox.net), which
|
|
"accepts primary responsibility for enforcement of US copyrights on the
|
|
software... and coordinates international copyright enforcement efforts for
|
|
such works as necessary." If you distribute BusyBox in a way that doesn't
|
|
comply with the terms of the license BusyBox is distributed under, expect to
|
|
hear from these guys. Their entire reason for existing is to do pro-bono
|
|
legal work for free/open source software projects. (We used to list people who
|
|
violate the BusyBox license in <a href="/shame.html">The Hall of Shame</a>,
|
|
but these days we find it much more effective to hand them over to the
|
|
lawyers.)</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Our enforcement efforts are aimed at bringing people into compliance with
|
|
the BusyBox license. Open source software is under a different license from
|
|
proprietary software, but if you violate that license you're still a software
|
|
pirate and the law gives the vendor (us) some big sticks to play with. We
|
|
don't want monetary awards, injunctions, or to generate bad PR for a company,
|
|
unless that's the only way to get somebody that repeatedly ignores us to comply
|
|
with the license on our code.</p>
|
|
|
|
<h3>A Good Example</h3>
|
|
|
|
<p>These days, <a href="http://www.linksys.com/">Linksys</a> is
|
|
doing a good job at complying with the GPL, they get to be an
|
|
example of how to do things right. Please take a moment and
|
|
check out what they do with
|
|
<a href="http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Content_C1&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1115416836002&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper">
|
|
distributing the firmware for their WRT54G Router.</a>
|
|
Following their example would be a fine way to ensure that you
|
|
have also fulfilled your licensing obligations.</p>
|
|
|
|
<!--#include file="footer.html" -->
|
|
|