On Oct 24 2013 2:23 PM, John Morris wrote:
> On 10/24/2013 02:06 PM, andy pugh wrote:
>> On 24 October 2013 19:55, John Morris <j...@zultron.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I believe that these restrictions mean that neither the LinuxCNC 
>>> project
>>> nor anyone else may distribute EtherCAT drivers in source code form 
>>> or
>>> otherwise, since with EtherCAT drivers, the software would 
>>> essentially
>>> become an 'EtherCAT device' subject to Beckhoff's licensing 
>>> requirements.
>>
>> Does it matter that the HAL driver in question is not itself an
>> EtherCAT master, but simply a glue layer between HAL and a 
>> third-party
>> EtherCAT Master?
>> (An inexact analogy would be a GPL filter to save a document in
>> Microsoft Word format)
>
> I'm no authority at all, of course, just trying to interpret these
> matters for myself.  I was becoming involved with packaging EtherCAT
> before this topic was raised, so it affects me personally.
>
> I'm focusing on the paragraph of Gerd's email following the title 
> 'For
> product /device manufacturers'.
>
> He writes, 'Making, marketing and sale of a product making use of the
> EtherCAT technology requires membership in the ETG and licensing of 
> the
> technology'.  This sounds like LinuxCNC would qualify as such a 
> product,
> and therefore those of us engaged in those activities (most all of us
> here in emc-developers) would be bound by those requirements, were
> EtherCAT to be included.
>
> A bit further down, he writes, 'if a product is a master stack 
> software,
> a vendor of the master stack or the master device does require a
> technology license agreement for the master product'.  I don't
> understand what 'master device' means or when the term would apply to
> LinuxCNC or systems it runs on.  In any case, it does apply to IgH's
> EtherCAT Master for Linux implementation, and is a 'further 
> restriction'
> explicitly prohibited by the GPL.

We are going to run around and around and around wasting time on this 
until someone 1) emails both IgH and FSF and ask for a determination on 
a) will LinuxCNC require to have such an agreement, and b) if their 
added requirement is a violation of the GPL; or 2) someone hires a 
copyright lawyer to sort it out.  All us arguing about it is a wast of 
time unless somone here IS actually a lawyer, hired one, or emailed the 
two principal determining parties.

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