[TriLUG] Software Project: License Options

[Greg Brown]

Since we're sort-of on the topic I found this write-up by Craig 
Hollabaugh in Embedded Linux Interfacing helpful in understanding the 
GPL, LGPL, etc.

"you are free to use and redistribute Linux without royalty or 
licensing fees, but you must make the Linux source code available to 
your customers.  You can't sell Linux, but you can sell any 
distribution media or enhancements that you develop.....The GPL also 
states that all "derived work" must also be released under GPL... If 
you build and redistribute a kernel that includes your device driver, 
then your device driver code is automatically included under the GPL 
and you must make it's source code available to your customers.  Device 
drivers that load dynamically after the kernel boot process are not 
included under the GPL, and you don't have to distribute your source 
code... Designing products with Linux and other open-source software 
doesn't mean you have to make your software open source.  Use of 
loadable modules and LGPL libraries protects your intellectual 
property...  If a product executes solely in the user space, that is, 
it has no kernel code or device drivers, it is not affected by the 
Linux kernel source code GPL.  A product running an application in user 
space can be affected through linking to libraries that are included 
under the GPL or another licensing model, called LGPL.  If an 
application running in user space and that application dynamically or 
statically links to glibc for functionality, the application is not 
included under GPL or LGPL, and you do not have to release your source 
code."

More or less a quote.

HTH

Greg

On Friday, Dec 12, 2003, at 13:08 US/Eastern, bp wrote:

> We will not be making use of any GPL source, just using OpenLDAP, 
> Struts
> and Tomcat.  And of course pitching the solution with a penchant for
> deploying on Linux ;-)
>
> -bp