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12 >eCos Licence Overview</TITLE
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84 NAME="ECOS-LICENSING">Chapter 3. <SPAN
87 > Licence Overview</H1
97 HREF="ecos-licensing.html#ECOS-LICENSING-QNA"
98 >Questions and answers</A
102 HREF="ecos-licensing-previous.html"
108 >As of May 2002, <SPAN
112 under a modified version of the well known <A
113 HREF="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html"
115 >GNU General Public License
117 >, now making it an <A
118 HREF="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/license-list.html"
121 GPL-compatible Free Software License</A
122 >. An exception clause has
123 been added to the <SPAN
126 > license which limits
127 the circumstances in which the license applies to other code when used
128 in conjunction with <SPAN
132 clause is as follows:</P
140 CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
141 > As a special exception, if other files instantiate templates or use macros
142 or inline functions from this file, or you compile this file and link it
143 with other works to produce a work based on this file, this file does not
144 by itself cause the resulting work to be covered by the GNU General Public
145 License. However the source code for this file must still be made
146 available in accordance with section (3) of the GNU General Public
149 This exception does not invalidate any other reasons why a work based on
150 this file might be covered by the GNU General Public License.</PRE
155 >The goal of the license is to serve the
159 > user community as a whole. It allows
163 > users to develop products without
164 paying anybody anything, no matter how many developers are working on
165 the product or how many units will be shipped. The license also
166 guarantees that the <SPAN
170 always be freely available. This applies not only to the core
174 > code itself but also to any changes
175 that anybody makes to the core. In particular, it should prevent any
176 company or individual contributing code to the system and then later
177 claiming that all <SPAN
180 > users are now guilty
181 of copyright or patent infringements and have to pay royalties. It
182 should also prevent any company from making some small improvements,
183 calling the result a completely new system, and releasing this under a
184 new and less generous license.</P
186 >The license does <SPAN
193 release the source code of any <SPAN
200 are developed with <SPAN
204 anybody makes any changes to code covered by the
208 > license, or writes new files derived
209 in any way from <SPAN
212 > code, then we believe
213 that the entire user community should have the opportunity to benefit
214 from this. The license stipulates that these changes must be made
215 available in source code form to all recipients of binaries based on
216 the modified code, either by including the sources along with the
217 binaries you deliver (or with any device containing such binaries) or
218 with a written offer to supply the source code to the general public
219 for three years. It is perhaps most practical for
223 > developers to make the source code
224 available online and inform those who are receiving binaries
228 > code, and probably also the
232 > maintainers, about the location of the
234 HREF="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html"
238 > for the most authoritative definition of the
241 >Although it is not strictly necessary to contribute the modified
242 code back to the <SPAN
245 > open source project,
246 we are always pleased to receive code contributions and hope that
247 developers will also be keen to give back in return for what they
248 received from the <SPAN
252 free of charge. The <SPAN
256 responsible for deciding whether such contributions should be applied
257 to the public repository. In addition, a <A
258 HREF="http://sources.redhat.com/ecos/assign.html"
262 > is required for any significant changes to the core
268 >The result is a royalty-free system with minimal obligations on
269 the part of application developers. This has resulted in the rapid
277 > is fully open source with all the
278 benefits that implies in terms of quality and innovation. We believe
279 that this is a winning combination.</P
285 NAME="ECOS-LICENSING-QNA">Questions and answers</H1
287 >The following queries provide some clarification as to the
288 implications of the <SPAN
292 not consititute part of the legal meaning of the license.</P
300 > What is the effect of the
312 > In the simplest terms, when you
313 distribute anything containing <SPAN
317 you must make the source code to <SPAN
321 available under the terms of the GPL.</P
329 > What if I make changes to
333 >, or write new code based on
345 > Then you must make those changes
346 available as well.</P
354 > Do I have to distribute the source
355 code to my application? Isn't the GPL "viral"?</P
363 > You do not have to distribute any
364 code under the terms of the GPL other than
368 > code or code derived from
372 >. For example, if you write a HAL port
373 based on copying an existing <SPAN
377 any way, you must make the source code available with the
378 binary. However you would not need to make available any other code,
379 such as the code of a wholly separate application linked with
391 > I would rather stick with the
392 RHEPL code, but I updated my anonymous CVS checkout.</P
400 > You can check out the final
401 version of anonymous CVS before the license change using the CVS tag
406 HREF="http://sources.redhat.com/ecos/anoncvs.html"
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475 >Previous License</TD