SFLC has released a code analysis of the infamous ath5k driver in Linux. SFLC has also - in the aftermath of the OpenBSD-Team vs. Linux-Team 'License Flame War' - released a paper on what 'copyrightable' means, as well as one on proper usage of non-GPL'ed code in GPL'ed projects. All as part of guidance for developers wishing to use permissive licensed code in GPL'ed projects.
Groklaw naturally also has a take on this.
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Member since:2005-10-13
Even without knowing the actual legal points of who was right and who was wrong, it always seemed very strange to me that the BSD folks were throwing fits about this situation. I had always assumed that the entire point of contributing to BSD licensed code was to get it used by as many people as possible, regardless of the license other people used, which is why they allowed proprietary developers to use it without any restrictions. So it seemed odd that they would complain about the GPL which still actually distributed all the changes that had been made and not proprietary vendors who hid all their changes to the code. I guess getting people to use the code isn't what the BSD license is all about after all.
Member since:2005-11-23
>>I guess getting people to use the code isn't what the BSD license is all about after all.
This is about ethics, not law.
Driver 1 is licensed under BSD. Somebody converts to GPL. We now have 2 almost identical codebases, with 2 licenses. One is BSD, the other is GPL.
GPL or BSD, both are open source. GPL projects can use BSD code. BSD projects can not use GPL code.
Code contributions made under the BSD license benefits both projects.
Code contributions made under the GPL licensebenefits the GPL project only.
"Thank you for working your ass off for the last years. We take it from here. KTHX."
Member since:2005-07-06
noone can take the copyright from you.
Oh that Peter Noone, always with taking of the copyrights ( http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/Noone ).
Member since:
2007-06-22
Noone LOCKED YOUR f--kING CODE IN YOUR GPL LICENSE DAMMIT, because noone can take the copyright from you. Your code is yours forever, gpl'ed are the changes and creative work. It's not like someone can steal your code, can they? Which brings me to the question if you want noone to steal and lock your code, why did you released it under the bsd license in the first place?
Edited 2007-09-30 16:56