I must prefix this with the fact that IANAL, but as I understand it, you must release the source code only if you distribute that modified system (with GPL v2). That is, if you use this system internally in you company, you don't have to provide your modifications. But if you, for example, provide your clients with the modified version, you have the obligation to provide them (your clients, not the Qemu community in general) also with the complete source code, after which they have the liberty to redistribute the source code under the GPL. One solution would be (again, IANAL, so please check with a real lawyer :D), is to create an interface to the code you wish to include and put the proprietary code in a dynamically linked library which exposes this interface. In this case IMHO you have to provide only the code which implements the interface in Qemu and loads the shared library, and you would have no obligation regarding the code in the shared library.
----- Original Message ---- From: Armbrost Failsafe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: qemu-devel@nongnu.org Sent: Thursday, 21 June, 2007 2:28:53 PM Subject: [Qemu-devel] QEMU License and proprietary hardware We are looking into using QEMU as the base for a model of a custom system featuring some custom ASICs. But licensing issues are halting the process right now. Does anyone know what happens license-wise if we create a model of proprietary hardware using QEMU? Is that model automatically covered by the GPL and thus we have to give to anyone who asks about it? It is clear that if we keep it internal, it is OK. But anyone outside of our organization is to use it, shouldn't they automatically be entitled to receive the entire source of QEMU, including our models of proprietary devices? Even if these are developed from scratch without using any existing source code for devices? /armbrost ___________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Mail is the world's favourite email. Don't settle for less, sign up for your free account today http://uk.rd.yahoo.com/evt=44106/*http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/mail/winter07.html