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113 lines
4.1 KiB
HTML
113 lines
4.1 KiB
HTML
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<h3>The GPL BusyBox license</h3>
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There has been some confusion in the past as to exactly what is
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required to safely distribute GPL'd software such as BusyBox as
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part of a product. To ensure that there is no confusion
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whatsoever, this page attempts to summarize what you should do to
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ensure you do not accidentally violate the law.
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<p>
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<p>
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BusyBox is licensed under the GNU General Public License , which
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is generally just abbreviated simply as the GPL license, or
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just the GPL. <a href="/products.html">Anyone thinking of shipping
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BusyBox as part of a product</a> should be familiar with the
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licensing terms under which they are allowed to use and
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distribute BusyBox. You are advised to take a look over the
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<ul>
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<li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html">full text of
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the GNU General Public License</a>, and
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<li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html">
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Frequently Asked Questions about the GNU GPL</a>
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</ul>
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to be sure you (and your lawyers) fully understand them.
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<p>
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The following is a quick summary for the impatient. If you
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carefully follow these steps, it will ensure that you are 100%
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authorized to ship BusyBox with your product, and have no reason
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to worry about lawsuits or being listed on the <a
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href="/shame.html">BusyBox Hall of Shame</a> page. You will be
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able to sleep peacefully at night knowing you have fulfilled all
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your licensing obligations.
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<p>
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If you distribute a product, it should either be accompanied by
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<b>full source for all GPL'd products</b> (including BusyBox)
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and/or a <b>written offer</b> to supply the source for all
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GPL'd products for the cost of shipping and handling. The source
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has to be in its preferred machine readable form, so you cannot
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encrypt or obfuscate it. You are not required to provide full
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source for all the closed source applications that happen to be
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part of the system with BusyBox, though you can certainly do so
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if you feel like it. But providing source for the GPL licensed
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applications such as BusyBox is mandatory.
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<p>
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<b>Accompanied by source</b> generally means you place the full
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source code for all GPL'd products such as BusyBox on a driver CD
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somewhere. Full source code includes the BusyBox ".config" file
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used when your shipping BusyBox binary was compiled.
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<p>
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<b>A written offer</b> generally means that somewhere in the
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docs for your product, you write something like
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<blockquote>
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The GPL source code contained in this product is available as a
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free download from http://blah.blah.blah/
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</blockquote>
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Or you can offer source by writing
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somewhere in the docs for your product something like
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<blockquote>
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If you would like a copy of the GPL source code in this product
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on a CD, please send $9.99 to <address> for the costs of
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preparing and mailing a CD to you.
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</blockquote>
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<p>
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Keep in mind though that if you distribute GPL'd binaries online
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(as is often done when supplying firmware updates), it is highly
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recommended that you make the corresponding source available online
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at the same place. Regardless, you <b>must</b> either make source
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available online (i.e. <b>accompanied by source</b>) and/or inform
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those downloading firmware updates of their right to obtain source
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(i.e. <b>a written offer</b>). Failure to do so is a violation of
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your licensing obligations.
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<p>
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Some people have the mistaken understanding that if they use unmodified
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GPL'd source code, they do not need to distribute anything. This belief
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is not correct, and is not supported by the
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<a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html">text of GPL</a>.
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Please do re-read it -- you will find there is no such provision.
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If you distribute any GPL'd binaries, you must also make source available
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as discussed on this webpage.
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<p>
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These days, <a href="http://www.linksys.com/">Linksys</a> is
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doing a good job at complying with the GPL, they get to be an
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example of how to do things right. Please take a moment and
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check out what they do with
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<a href="http://www.linksys.com/download/firmware.asp?fwid=178">
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distributing the firmware for their WRT54G Router.</a>
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Following their example would be a fine way to ensure you have
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fulfilled your licensing obligations.
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