Tue, 08 Aug 2000 Reef Morse wrote:
> I just got back from a conference where a major vendor is re-writing their
> software to run under Linux (and, in some cases, RTLinux). I'm unclear on
> the issue of source code licensing under the Free Software Licenseing
> agreement - could someone point me to a place where I can get necessary
> information?
http://www.gnu.org
or more specifically
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
> If someone writes something that RUNS under Linux, do they
> have to "share" the source?
No.
NOTE: (From the file "COPYING" of the Linux kernel sources.)
NOTE! This copyright does *not* cover user programs that use kernel
services by normal system calls - this is merely considered normal use
of the kernel, and does *not* fall under the heading of "derived work".
Also note that the GPL below is copyrighted by the Free Software
Foundation, but the instance of code that it refers to (the Linux
kernel) is copyrighted by me and others who actually wrote it.
Linus Torvalds
[GPL v2 follows]
General practice indicates that this actually covers code running in kernel
space (modules) as well, and AFAIK, this has been confirmed by the copyright
holders of Linux. That is, the Linux license has an exception that makes it
more similar to the LGPL in this particular case. (Unfortunately, I can't find
the official statement right now...)
David Olofson
Programmer
Reologica Instruments AB
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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