94b383d41
Rob Landley
2006-09-20
Subject
License clarification.
SOURCE BUG
This commit was genuinely broken at the time (not related to our build system): scripts/config/mkconfigs.c (2005-08-01 - 2006-10-05 arasi) uretilen bbconfigopts.h icine .config satirlarini kacissiz, ham newline'larla gömüyordu - gecerli C degildi, busybox'un kendi bb_mkdep araci bile parse edemiyordu (7d219aab7 ile duzeltildi, mkconfigs shell scripte cevrildi)
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LICENSE+8 -0
| @@ -1,3 +1,11 @@ | |
| + | --- 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 | |
| Version 2, June 1991 | |
docs/busybox.net/license.html+43 -4
| @@ -1,12 +1,15 @@ | |
| <!--#include file="header.html" --> | |
| <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 | |
| - | GNU General Public License</a> version 2, which is generally |
| - | abbreviated as the GPL. (This is the same license the Linux kernel is under, |
| - | so you may be somewhat familiar with it by now.)</p> |
| + | 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 | |
| @@ -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 | |
| 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>, which | |
| "accepts primary responsibility for enforcement of US copyrights on the | |