GPL vs BSD Licence

[Phil Schulz]

[Moved to chat@ from questions@ since the discussion isn't strictly 
about FreeBSD anymore]

TM4525 at aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 10/26/04 2:32:58 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
> tedm at toybox.placo.com writes:
> Actually a more interesting example is some of the Linksys routers
> do indeed use an embedded Linux along with Zebra as the routing engine.
> 
> Ted
>  Or Allot communications, who openly advertise the use of linux, but do 
> not make source available to an obviously modified kernel.. I believe they 
> claim that the GPL is optional. 

  I don't think that Allot modifies the Linux kernel. I wouldn't expect 
them to do so and I don't see an obvious reason why they should (*). 
Obviously some of their custom stuff needs to run inside kernel, but I 
rather think they enhance the kernel with some loadable modules or 
whatever (does Linux have KLDs?).

  In a case, it is not really clear if the product needs to be licensed 
under the GPL. You could see your product as an application designed for 
Linux, so you think it is your choice on how to license your code, but...
  A while back, I fast-read a post of Linus Torvalds to a mailing list 
saying why he thinks that binary-only enhancements to linux must be GPL 
licenced (and I believed the statemant was discussed on a FreeBSD-list 
also). His argument was that by using the kernel headers your work 
automatically becomes a derived work, thus it needs to be licensed under 
the GPL. I seem to recall the discussion was about nVidia's closed 
source, binary only drivers but, according to Linus, affects all similar 
products. I'm unsure if and how this issue is being dealt with.
  But then, I'm not sure (and I mean it) if there can be any piece of 
software which, if designed for e.g. Linux, can be written w/o using any 
system headers, libraries or whatsoever.
  Personally, I like the BSD(-style) license better b/c I don't have to 
worry about such things and therefore have more time to concentrate on 
others.

Regards,

Phil.

(*) I've only ever worked with the NetEnforcer Products, don't know 
Allot's other products.

P.S.: I do not know Linux at all and I don't feel that I have to get my 
hands on it in the nearest future. I'm just stating my opinion, how I 
see things and what observations I've made.


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