Hi,
>> On Mon, Jul 07, 2008 at 04:53:14PM +0200, Wolfgang Denk wrote:
>> > I support this, but then we should *always* print this message, not
>> > only "when it starts in an interactive mode" (or some guys could try
>> > to get away by disabling interactive mode).
>>
>> Such a restriction is (fortunately) not enforcable by the license, which
>
> It may not be enforcable by the license, but bu the Copyright holders
> of the code.
>
>> only covers interactive interfaces. Otherwise, it would make u-boot useless
>> for environments where interactive mode would interfere with other uses of
>> the serial port (or when no suitable device exists).
>
> Of course it must not interfere with such situations. We have
> standard ways to silence console output, and I did not mean to mess
> with these. But if there is console output, a "GPL" message would
> probably be a Good Thing.
Just to confirm, this was also my original intention. If we output an
"U-Boot ver. x.y.z" we can surely also output "U-Boot is Free Software
licensed under the GPL".
>> Personally, I'd rather stay far away from invoking any clauses of a
>> non-changeable license that dictate technical decisions such as which bytes
>> to include in the final image.
>
> The GPL does not dictate anything - you have always the freedom to
> write anything from scratch or buy the source code for any proprie-
> tary boot loader that comes under another license. But U-Boot *is*
> licensed under GPL, and this is what makes it strong. Over the years,
> and spending more and more time on stupid email discussions with
> companies who think they can ignore a "free" license (while being
> empatic with their own closed source stuff), I came to beliving that
> a clearly visible label "This box runs Free Software" is a really,
> really good idea.
Full ack.
Cheers
Detlev
--
A stated design goal of Motif was to give the X Window System the
window management capabilities of HP's circa-1988 window manager and
the visual elegance of Microsoft Windows. We kid you not.
-- The UNIX Haters Handbook
--
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