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Starting a new project. Just a bit past the "hello world" stage...
author landley@driftwood
date Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:45:05 -0400
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1 <!--#include file="header.html" -->
2
3 <h2>Toybox is licensed under the terms of GPLv2.</h2>
4
5 <p>The complete text of the General Public License version 2 is included in the
6 file LICENSE in each source tarball. Version 2 is the only version of
7 this license which toybox is distributed under. (I.E. It doesn't have the
8 strange "or later" dual license some projects have.)</p>
9
10 <h2>Clarifications</h2>
11
12 <p>The GPL is a bit old and crufty in places, but it's still the best open
13 source license there is, and lots of source code (like the Linux kernel) is
14 distributed under it. Lots of de facto interpretations have sprung up to deal
15 with things like the fact that it predates the internet service provider
16 industry. Nothing in the rest of this page changes the actual license, so you
17 can ignore the rest of this page if you're happy with a strict reading of
18 GPLv2. But just to be clear, here's how the authors of this project are
19 interpreting the sucker where it says something stupid.</p>
20
21 <p>Section 1: <b>You have permission to rephrase the license notice on
22 individual source files.</b> This doesn't mean you can change what license the
23 code is under, or that you can remove other people's copyright notices. You
24 certainly can't change the test of the GPL itself. What it means is that if
25 you use this code in a project that distributes source in zip files instead of
26 tarballs, or your package's copy of the GPLv2 text isn't in a file called
27 "LICENSE", it's silly to preserve an obsolete notice verbatim and add some
28 kind of "correction" after the old notice.</p>
29
30 <p>Some lawyers seem to think a strict reading of GPLv2 section 1 (and later
31 sections including section 1 by reference) requires maintaining old notices in
32 perpetuity. Even if you had code that used to be dual licensed, but created
33 a derived work that's just under one of the two licenses, so the old license
34 notice is not just strange or misleading but actually incorrect for the new
35 file. (For example, splicing GPLv2 only code into a dual "GPLv2 or later"
36 project produces a result that can be distributed under the terms of GPLv2,
37 but not GPLv3. The result cannot be distributed under the "or later" part,
38 so a license notice saying it could is factually wrong.)</p>
39
40 <p>I don't know if we're ever going to put any dual licensed code into the tree,
41 but I want to head that one off now. The actual license text is the important
42 thing, the per-file notice is a courtesy.</p>
43
44 <p>Section 2: <b>We don't put the change history in comments in the source
45 code, we put it in our source control system.</b> We have source control for a
46 reason. That's where this information belongs, and that's where we put it.
47 It's world readable on the web, and you can download a snapshot of the whole
48 repository if you like. The GPL predates modern source control systems, but
49 this project does not.</p>
50
51 <p>Section 3: <b>We distribute source code through the internet.</b> If
52 your "written offer" includes a URL, and the source code remains anonymously
53 downloadable at that location for three years after you stop distributing
54 binaries, life is good as far as we're concerned. (No, you can't encrypt it,
55 or require a login, or otherwise be slimy bastards acting in bad faith. We'll
56 come after you if you're not satisfying the terms of the license, this is just
57 talking about how you can satisfy those terms without having to mail physical
58 media. Most people are already doing it this way.)</p>
59
60 <p>Also, <a href="http://software.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=06/06/23/1728205&tid=150">what the FSF did to Mepis</a> was inexcusable. (Further discussed
61 in <a href="http://www.busybox.net/lists/busybox/2006-June/022797.html">this
62 thread</a>.) Mepis partnered with Ubuntu, put out a press release quoting
63 Ubuntu's founder about how cool the partnership was, and then pointed to
64 Ubuntu's source repository for packages it was using unmodified Ubuntu versions
65 of. As far as we're concerned, Mepis didn't do anything wrong, and the FSF
66 was a bully. The FSF was wrong when it tried to make an example out of a
67 company that was acting in good faith.</p>
68
69 <p>To make sure the FSF doesn't pick on anyone else against our wishes, we're
70 clarifying that if you didn't modify the source code, and the binaries you're
71 distributing can be entirely regenerated from a public upstream source,
72 pointing to that upstream source in good faith is good enough for us, as long
73 as they don't mind the extra bandwidth and the correct source code stays
74 available at that location for the duration of your responsiblity to
75 redistribute source.</p>
76
77 <p>This doesn't mean it's fair for a Fortune 500 company to point millions of
78 people at somebody's home DSL line (certainly not without asking first).
79 And if the source that's available there isn't the complete source you used
80 to produce your binaries, you haven't fulfilled your obligations either.
81 And if the code stops being available at that location, you're not off the
82 hook and have to find a new location or put up your own mirror. And obviously
83 it has to be the _right_ source code (if you modified it, we want the patch,
84 and claiming you didn't modify it when you actually did is fraud).</p>
85
86 <p>This is not a "get out of jail free" card: It's still your responsibility to
87 make the source available. We're just saying you can reasonably delegate to
88 something like Sourceforge or ibilbio and as long as everyone who wants the
89 source can get it, we're happy. If the site you point to objects or goes down,
90 responsibility obviously reverts to you.</p>
91
92 <p>But if this project needs mirrors, we'll _ask_. (Most likely we'll ask
93 someone like sourceforge, OSL, ISC, ibiblio, archive.org...)</p>
94
95 <p>Section 9: <b>Does not apply to this project.</b> We're specifying the
96 version, it's version 2. There is no "or later versions" clause to require
97 interpreting.
98
99 <hr>
100 <pre>
101 GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
102 Version 2, June 1991
103
104 Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
105 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
106 Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
107 of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
108
109 Preamble
110
111 The licenses for most software are designed to take away your
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115 General Public License applies to most of the Free Software
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120
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158
159 GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
160 TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
161
162 0. This License applies to any program or other work which contains
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297 7. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent
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326 This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to
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328
329 8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in
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336
337 9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions
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341
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350 10. If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free
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357
358 NO WARRANTY
359
360 11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY
361 FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN
362 OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES
363 PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED
364 OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
365 MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS
366 TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE
367 PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING,
368 REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
369
370 12. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING
371 WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR
372 REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES,
373 INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING
374 OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED
375 TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY
376 YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER
377 PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE
378 POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
379
380 END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
381 </pre>
382 <!--#include file="footer.html" -->