aboutsummaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/docs
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorlandley <landley@69ca8d6d-28ef-0310-b511-8ec308f3f277>2006-06-27 20:47:08 +0000
committerlandley <landley@69ca8d6d-28ef-0310-b511-8ec308f3f277>2006-06-27 20:47:08 +0000
commit2b1b06c6ab855d0c15d51ad72c4b9fc07ed77926 (patch)
tree6c1233eaf24737568150e757a9d91a5c20293bb5 /docs
parent28ee850418499188fffdad074b1a43bc5381971e (diff)
downloadbusybox-w32-2b1b06c6ab855d0c15d51ad72c4b9fc07ed77926.tar.gz
busybox-w32-2b1b06c6ab855d0c15d51ad72c4b9fc07ed77926.tar.bz2
busybox-w32-2b1b06c6ab855d0c15d51ad72c4b9fc07ed77926.zip
Redo the license section completely, and update the header to group the tabs.
git-svn-id: svn://busybox.net/trunk/busybox@15535 69ca8d6d-28ef-0310-b511-8ec308f3f277
Diffstat (limited to 'docs')
-rw-r--r--docs/busybox.net/header.html38
-rw-r--r--docs/busybox.net/license.html158
2 files changed, 65 insertions, 131 deletions
diff --git a/docs/busybox.net/header.html b/docs/busybox.net/header.html
index 9a79a0fea..65b4de3fe 100644
--- a/docs/busybox.net/header.html
+++ b/docs/busybox.net/header.html
@@ -43,19 +43,31 @@
43<tr> 43<tr>
44 44
45<td valign="TOP"> 45<td valign="TOP">
46 <br><a href="/news.html">Latest News</a> 46 <b>About</b>
47 <br><a href="/about.html">About</a> 47 <ul>
48 <br>Documentation: 48 <li><a href="/about.html">About BusyBox</a></li>
49 <ul><li><a href="/FAQ.html">FAQ</a></li><li><a href="downloads/BusyBox.html>Manual</a></li><li><a href="downloads/README">README</a></li></ul> 49 <li><a href="/screenshot.html">Screenshot</a></li>
50 <br><a href="/download.html">Download</a> 50 <li><a href="/news.html">Latest News</a></li>
51 <br><a href="/screenshot.html">Screenshot</a> 51 </ul>
52 <br><a href="/lists.html">Mailing Lists</a> 52 <b>Documentation</b>
53 <br><a href="/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/trunk/busybox/">Browse Source</a> 53 <ul>
54 <br><a href="/subversion.html">Accessing Source</a> 54 <li><a href="/FAQ.html">FAQ</a></li>
55 <br><a href="http://bugs.busybox.net/">Bug Tracking</a> 55 <li><a href="downloads/BusyBox.html>Command Help</a></li>
56 <br><a href="/products.html">Products</a> 56 <li><a href="downloads/README">README</a></li>
57 <br><a href="/shame.html">Hall of Shame</a> 57 </ul>
58 <br><a href="/license.html">License</a> 58 <b>Development</b>
59 <ul>
60 <li><a href="/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/trunk/busybox/">Browse Source</a></li>
61 <li><a href="/subversion.html">Source Control</a></li>
62 <li><a href="/lists.html">Mailing Lists</a></li>
63 <li><a href="http://bugs.busybox.net/">Bug Tracking</a></li>
64 </ul>
65 <b>Get BusyBox</b>
66 <ul>
67 <li><a href="/download.html">Download Source</a></li>
68 <li><a href="/license.html">License</a></li>
69 <li><a href="/products.html">Products</a></li>
70 </ul>
59 71
60 <p><b>Related Sites</b> 72 <p><b>Related Sites</b>
61 <br><a href="http://uclibc.org/">uClibc.org</a> 73 <br><a href="http://uclibc.org/">uClibc.org</a>
diff --git a/docs/busybox.net/license.html b/docs/busybox.net/license.html
index f3de41964..95fa6b60e 100644
--- a/docs/busybox.net/license.html
+++ b/docs/busybox.net/license.html
@@ -1,135 +1,57 @@
1<!--#include file="header.html" --> 1<!--#include file="header.html" -->
2 2
3
4<h3>The GPL BusyBox license</h3>
5
6There has been some confusion in the past as to exactly what is
7required to safely distribute GPL'd software such as BusyBox as
8part of a product. To ensure that there is no confusion
9whatsoever, this page attempts to summarize what you should do to
10ensure you do not accidentally violate the law.
11
12<p>
13<h3>Complying with the BusyBox license is easy and completely free.</h3>
14
15U.S. and International Law protects copyright owners from the unauthorized
16reproduction, adaptation, display, distribution, etc of copyright protected
17works. Copyright violations (such as shipping BusyBox in a manner contrary to
18its license) are subject to severe penalties. The courts can award up to
19$150,000 per product shipped without even showing any actual loss by the
20copyright holder. Criminal penalties are available for intentional acts
21undertaken for purposes of "commercial advantage" or "private financial gain."
22In addition, if it comes to my attention that you are violating the BusyBox
23license, I will list you on the <a href="/shame.html">BusyBox Hall of Shame</a>
24webpage.
25
26<p>
27
28Nobody wants that to happen. Do everyone a favor and don't break the law -- if
29you use BusyBox, you <b>must comply with the BusyBox license</b>.
30
31<p> 3<p>
32<h3>BusyBox is licensed under the GNU General Public License</h3> 4<h3>BusyBox is licensed under the GNU General Public License</h3>
33 5
34BusyBox is licensed under the GNU General Public License , which 6<p>BusyBox is licensed under <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html#SEC1">the
35is generally just abbreviated as the GPL license, or 7GNU General Public License</a> version 2 or later, which is generally
36just the GPL. 8abbreviated as the GPL. (This is the same license the Linux kernel is under,
37<p> 9so you may be somewhat familiar with it by now.)</p>
38<a href="/products.html">Anyone thinking of shipping 10
39BusyBox as part of a product</a> should be familiar with the 11<p><a href="/products.html">Anyone thinking of shipping BusyBox as part of a
40licensing terms under which they are allowed to use and 12product</a> should be familiar with the licensing terms under which they are
41distribute BusyBox. You are advised to take a look over the 13allowed to use and distribute BusyBox. Read the full test of the GPL (either
42 14through the above link, or in the file LICENSE in the busybox tarball), and
43<ul> 15also read the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html">Frequently
44<li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html">full text of 16Asked Questions about the GPL</a>.</p>
45the GNU General Public License</a>, and 17
46<li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html"> 18<p>Basically, if you distribute GPL software the license requires that you also
47Frequently Asked Questions about the GNU GPL</a> 19distribute the source code to that GPL-licensed software. So if you distribute
48</ul> 20BusyBox without making the source code to the version you distribute available,
49to be sure you (and your lawyers) fully understand them. 21you violate the license terms, and thus infringe on the copyrights of BusyBox.
50 22(This requirement applies whether or not you modified BusyBox; either way the
51<p> 23license terms still apply to you.) Read the license text for the details.</p>
52 24
53The following is a quick summary for the impatient. If you 25<p>BusyBox's copyrights are enforced by the <a
54carefully follow these steps, it will ensure that you are 100% 26href="http://www.softwarefreedom.org">Software Freedom Law Center</a>, which
55authorized to ship BusyBox with your product, and have no reason 27"accepts primary responsibility for enforcement of US copyrights on the
56to worry about lawsuits or being listed on the <a 28software... and coordinates international copyright enforcement efforts for
57href="/shame.html">BusyBox Hall of Shame</a> page. You will be 29such works as necessary." If you distribute BusyBox in a way that doesn't
58able to sleep peacefully at night knowing you have fulfilled all 30comply with the terms of the license BusyBox is distributed under, expect to
59your licensing obligations. 31hear from these guys. Their entire reason for existing is to do pro-bono
60 32legal work for free/open source software projects. (We used to list people who
61<p> 33violate the BusyBox license in <a href="/shame.html">The Hall of Shame</a>,
62 34but these days we find it much more effective to hand them over to the
63If you distribute a product, it should either be accompanied by 35lawyers.)</p>
64<b>full source for all GPL'd products</b> (including BusyBox) 36
65and/or a <b>written offer</b> to supply the source for all 37<p>Our enforcement efforts are aimed at bringing people into compliance with
66GPL'd products for the cost of shipping and handling. The source 38the BusyBox license. Open source software is under a different license from
67has to be in its preferred machine readable form, so you cannot 39proprietary software, but if you violate that license you're still a software
68encrypt or obfuscate it. You are not required to provide full 40pirate and the law gives the vendor (us) some big sticks to play with. We
69source for all the closed source applications that happen to be 41don't want monetary awards, injunctions, or to generate bad PR for a company,
70part of the system with BusyBox, though you can certainly do so 42unless that's the only way to get somebody that repeatedly ignores us to comply
71if you feel like it. But providing source for the GPL licensed 43with the license on our code.</p>
72applications such as BusyBox is mandatory.
73
74<p>
75
76<b>Accompanied by source</b> generally means you distribute the full
77source code for all GPL'd products including BusyBox along with your
78product, such as by placing it somewhere on a driver CD. Full source
79code includes the BusyBox ".config" file used when your shipping BusyBox
80binary was compiled, and any and all modifications you made to the
81BusyBox source code.
82
83<p>
84
85<b>A written offer</b> generally means that somewhere in the
86documentation for your product, you write something like
87
88<blockquote>
89The GPL source code contained in this product is available as a
90free download from http://blah.blah.blah/
91</blockquote>
92Alternatively, you can offer the source code by writing
93somewhere in the documentation for your product something like
94<blockquote>
95If you would like a copy of the GPL source code contained in this
96product shipped to you on CD, please send $9.99 to &lt;address&gt;
97which covers the cost of preparing and mailing a CD to you.
98</blockquote>
99<p>
100
101Keep in mind though that if you distribute GPL'd binaries online (as is often
102done when supplying firmware updates), it is <b>highly</b> recommended that you
103make the corresponding source available online at the same place. Regardless,
104if you distribute a binary copy of BusyBox online (such as part of a firmware
105update) you <b>must</b> either make source available online (i.e.
106<b>accompanied by source</b>) and/or inform those downloading firmware updates
107of their right to obtain source (i.e. <b>a written offer</b>). Failure to do
108so is a violation of your licensing obligations.
109
110
111<p>
112
113Some people have the mistaken understanding that if they use unmodified
114GPL'd source code, they do not need to distribute anything. This belief
115is not correct, and is not supported by the
116<a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html">text of GPL</a>.
117Please do re-read it -- you will find there is no such provision.
118If you distribute any GPL'd binaries, you must also make source available
119as discussed on this webpage.
120 44
121<p>
122<h3>A Good Example</h3> 45<h3>A Good Example</h3>
123 46
124These days, <a href="http://www.linksys.com/">Linksys</a> is 47<p>These days, <a href="http://www.linksys.com/">Linksys</a> is
125doing a good job at complying with the GPL, they get to be an 48doing a good job at complying with the GPL, they get to be an
126example of how to do things right. Please take a moment and 49example of how to do things right. Please take a moment and
127check out what they do with 50check out what they do with
128<a href="http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Content_C1&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1115416836002&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper"> 51<a href="http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Content_C1&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1115416836002&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper">
129distributing the firmware for their WRT54G Router.</a> 52distributing the firmware for their WRT54G Router.</a>
130Following their example would be a fine way to ensure that you 53Following their example would be a fine way to ensure that you
131have also fulfilled your licensing obligations. 54have also fulfilled your licensing obligations.</p>
132
133 55
134<!--#include file="footer.html" --> 56<!--#include file="footer.html" -->
135 57