Messages in this thread | | | Date | Tue, 7 Mar 2000 17:16:21 -0500 (EST) | From | "Mike A. Harris" <> | Subject | Re: BSD Licensed files in Linux kernel. |
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On Tue, 7 Mar 2000, Ben Collins wrote:
>Date: Tue, 7 Mar 2000 11:46:52 -0500 >From: Ben Collins <bcollins@debian.org> >To: Darren Reed <avalon@coombs.anu.edu.au> >Cc: Andi Kleen <ak@suse.de>, linux-kernel@vger.rutgers.edu >Subject: Re: BSD Licensed files in Linux kernel. > >> > The file in question is copyright UCB. >> > UCB has recently dropped the problematical clause (3) of the license, >> > and the BSD license without that does not conflict with the GPL. UCB >> > as the copyright holder can drop that. They did. So there is no problem. >> >> What about the view that the GPL prohibits sub-licensing (such as what >> the UCB file has) ? >> >> What about the view that the UCB copyright places restrictions (albeit >> very light) which are not present in the GPL ? Specifically this: >> >> * 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright >> * notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the >> * documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. >> >> Wouldn't this fly in the face of section 6 of the GPL ? > >You are assuming that the "kernel" is one big piece of software under one >big license. There are a lot of components, and each can have it's own >license. This has nothing to do with relicensing, since that is the original >license for that component.
No, the kernel, as distributed in source form is a single entity, which is under the GPL license. The components _in_ the kernel may be under multiple licenses individually, one of which is either GPL, or GPL compatible, or it would not be a part of the kernel because it would violate GPL.
-- Mike A. Harris Linux advocate Computer Consultant GNU advocate Capslock Consulting Open Source advocate
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