License clarification.

This commit is contained in:
Rob Landley 2006-09-20 20:01:29 +00:00
parent d1f939eaf3
commit 94b383d419
2 changed files with 51 additions and 4 deletions

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--- A note on GPL versions
BusyBox is distributed under version 2 of the General Public License (included
in its entirety, below). Version 2 is the only version of this license which
this version of BusyBox (or modified versions derived from this one) may be
distributed under.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
Version 2, June 1991 Version 2, June 1991

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<!--#include file="header.html" --> <!--#include file="header.html" -->
<p> <p>
<h3>BusyBox is licensed under the GNU General Public License</h3> <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 <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 generally GNU General Public License</a> version 2, which is often abbreviated as GPLv2.
abbreviated as the GPL. (This is the same license the Linux kernel is under, (This is the same license the Linux kernel is under, so you may be somewhat
so you may be somewhat familiar with it by now.)</p> 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 <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 product</a> should be familiar with the licensing terms under which they are
@ -22,6 +25,42 @@ 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 (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> 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 <p>BusyBox's copyrights are enforced by the <a
href="http://www.softwarefreedom.org">Software Freedom Law Center</a>, which href="http://www.softwarefreedom.org">Software Freedom Law Center</a>, which
"accepts primary responsibility for enforcement of US copyrights on the "accepts primary responsibility for enforcement of US copyrights on the