aboutsummaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/docs/busybox.net/license.html
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to 'docs/busybox.net/license.html')
-rw-r--r--docs/busybox.net/license.html99
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 99 deletions
diff --git a/docs/busybox.net/license.html b/docs/busybox.net/license.html
deleted file mode 100644
index 2a4c51d10..000000000
--- a/docs/busybox.net/license.html
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,99 +0,0 @@
-<!--#include file="header.html" -->
-
-<p>
-<h3><a name="license">BusyBox is licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 2</a></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 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
-allowed to use and distribute BusyBox. Read the full test of the GPL (either
-through the above link, or in the file LICENSE in the busybox tarball), and
-also read the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html">Frequently
-Asked Questions about the GPL</a>.</p>
-
-<p>Basically, if you distribute GPL software the license requires that you also
-distribute the source code to that GPL-licensed software. So if you distribute
-BusyBox without making the source code to the version you distribute available,
-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 name="version">A note on GPL versions</a></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
-&quot;GPL version 2 or (at your option) later versions&quot; 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 that 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
-&quot;may be redistributed as per the Linux copyright&quot; (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><a name="enforce">License enforcement</a></h3>
-
-<p>BusyBox's copyrights are enforced by the <a
-href="http://www.softwarefreedom.org/">Software Freedom Law Center</a>
-(you can contact them at gpl@busybox.net), which
-&quot;accepts primary responsibility for enforcement of US copyrights on the
-software... and coordinates international copyright enforcement efforts for
-such works as necessary.&quot; If you distribute BusyBox in a way that doesn't
-comply with the terms of the license BusyBox is distributed under, expect to
-hear from these guys. Their entire reason for existing is to do pro-bono
-legal work for free/open source software projects. (We used to list people who
-violate the BusyBox license in <a href="shame.html">The Hall of Shame</a>,
-but these days we find it much more effective to hand them over to the
-lawyers.)</p>
-
-<p>Our enforcement efforts are aimed at bringing people into compliance with
-the BusyBox license. Open source software is under a different license from
-proprietary software, but if you violate that license you're still a software
-pirate and the law gives the vendor (us) some big sticks to play with. We
-don't want monetary awards, injunctions, or to generate bad PR for a company,
-unless that's the only way to get somebody that repeatedly ignores us to comply
-with the license on our code.</p>
-
-<h3><a name="good">A Good Example</a></h3>
-
-<p>These days, <a href="http://www.linksys.com/">Linksys</a> is
-doing a good job at complying with the GPL, they get to be an
-example of how to do things right. Please take a moment and
-check out what they do with
-<a href="http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Content_C1&amp;childpagename=US%2FLayout&amp;cid=1115416836002&amp;pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper">
-distributing the firmware for their WRT54G Router.</a>
-Following their example would be a fine way to ensure that you
-have also fulfilled your licensing obligations.</p>
-
-<!--#include file="footer.html" -->
-