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Redo the license section completely, and update the header to group the tabs.

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Rob Landley 2006-06-27 20:47:08 +00:00
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docs/busybox.net/header.html
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<tr> <tr>
<td valign="TOP"> <td valign="TOP">
<br><a href="/news.html">Latest News</a> <b>About</b>
<br><a href="/about.html">About</a> <ul>
<br>Documentation: <li><a href="/about.html">About BusyBox</a></li>
<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> <li><a href="/screenshot.html">Screenshot</a></li>
<br><a href="/download.html">Download</a> <li><a href="/news.html">Latest News</a></li>
<br><a href="/screenshot.html">Screenshot</a> </ul>
<br><a href="/lists.html">Mailing Lists</a> <b>Documentation</b>
<br><a href="/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/trunk/busybox/">Browse Source</a> <ul>
<br><a href="/subversion.html">Accessing Source</a> <li><a href="/FAQ.html">FAQ</a></li>
<br><a href="http://bugs.busybox.net/">Bug Tracking</a> <li><a href="downloads/BusyBox.html>Command Help</a></li>
<br><a href="/products.html">Products</a> <li><a href="downloads/README">README</a></li>
<br><a href="/shame.html">Hall of Shame</a> </ul>
<br><a href="/license.html">License</a> <b>Development</b>
<ul>
<li><a href="/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/trunk/busybox/">Browse Source</a></li>
<li><a href="/subversion.html">Source Control</a></li>
<li><a href="/lists.html">Mailing Lists</a></li>
<li><a href="http://bugs.busybox.net/">Bug Tracking</a></li>
</ul>
<b>Get BusyBox</b>
<ul>
<li><a href="/download.html">Download Source</a></li>
<li><a href="/license.html">License</a></li>
<li><a href="/products.html">Products</a></li>
</ul>
<p><b>Related Sites</b> <p><b>Related Sites</b>
<br><a href="http://uclibc.org/">uClibc.org</a> <br><a href="http://uclibc.org/">uClibc.org</a>

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<!--#include file="header.html" --> <!--#include file="header.html" -->
<h3>The GPL BusyBox license</h3>
There has been some confusion in the past as to exactly what is
required to safely distribute GPL'd software such as BusyBox as
part of a product. To ensure that there is no confusion
whatsoever, this page attempts to summarize what you should do to
ensure you do not accidentally violate the law.
<p>
<h3>Complying with the BusyBox license is easy and completely free.</h3>
U.S. and International Law protects copyright owners from the unauthorized
reproduction, adaptation, display, distribution, etc of copyright protected
works. Copyright violations (such as shipping BusyBox in a manner contrary to
its license) are subject to severe penalties. The courts can award up to
$150,000 per product shipped without even showing any actual loss by the
copyright holder. Criminal penalties are available for intentional acts
undertaken for purposes of "commercial advantage" or "private financial gain."
In addition, if it comes to my attention that you are violating the BusyBox
license, I will list you on the <a href="/shame.html">BusyBox Hall of Shame</a>
webpage.
<p>
Nobody wants that to happen. Do everyone a favor and don't break the law -- if
you use BusyBox, you <b>must comply with the BusyBox license</b>.
<p> <p>
<h3>BusyBox is licensed under the GNU General Public License</h3> <h3>BusyBox is licensed under the GNU General Public License</h3>
BusyBox is licensed under the GNU General Public License , which <p>BusyBox is licensed under <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html#SEC1">the
is generally just abbreviated as the GPL license, or GNU General Public License</a> version 2 or later, which is generally
just the GPL. abbreviated as the GPL. (This is the same license the Linux kernel is under,
<p> so you may be somewhat familiar with it by now.)</p>
<a href="/products.html">Anyone thinking of shipping
BusyBox as part of a product</a> should be familiar with the
licensing terms under which they are allowed to use and
distribute BusyBox. You are advised to take a look over the
<ul> <p><a href="/products.html">Anyone thinking of shipping BusyBox as part of a
<li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html">full text of product</a> should be familiar with the licensing terms under which they are
the GNU General Public License</a>, and allowed to use and distribute BusyBox. Read the full test of the GPL (either
<li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html"> through the above link, or in the file LICENSE in the busybox tarball), and
Frequently Asked Questions about the GNU GPL</a> also read the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html">Frequently
</ul> Asked Questions about the GPL</a>.</p>
to be sure you (and your lawyers) fully understand them.
<p> <p>Basically, if you distribute GPL software the license requires that you also
distribute the source code to that GPL-licensed software. So if you distribute
BusyBox without making the source code to the version you distribute available,
you violate the license terms, and thus infringe on the copyrights of BusyBox.
(This requirement applies whether or not you modified BusyBox; either way the
license terms still apply to you.) Read the license text for the details.</p>
The following is a quick summary for the impatient. If you <p>BusyBox's copyrights are enforced by the <a
carefully follow these steps, it will ensure that you are 100% href="http://www.softwarefreedom.org">Software Freedom Law Center</a>, which
authorized to ship BusyBox with your product, and have no reason "accepts primary responsibility for enforcement of US copyrights on the
to worry about lawsuits or being listed on the <a software... and coordinates international copyright enforcement efforts for
href="/shame.html">BusyBox Hall of Shame</a> page. You will be such works as necessary." If you distribute BusyBox in a way that doesn't
able to sleep peacefully at night knowing you have fulfilled all comply with the terms of the license BusyBox is distributed under, expect to
your licensing obligations. hear from these guys. Their entire reason for existing is to do pro-bono
legal work for free/open source software projects. (We used to list people who
violate the BusyBox license in <a href="/shame.html">The Hall of Shame</a>,
but these days we find it much more effective to hand them over to the
lawyers.)</p>
<p> <p>Our enforcement efforts are aimed at bringing people into compliance with
the BusyBox license. Open source software is under a different license from
proprietary software, but if you violate that license you're still a software
pirate and the law gives the vendor (us) some big sticks to play with. We
don't want monetary awards, injunctions, or to generate bad PR for a company,
unless that's the only way to get somebody that repeatedly ignores us to comply
with the license on our code.</p>
If you distribute a product, it should either be accompanied by
<b>full source for all GPL'd products</b> (including BusyBox)
and/or a <b>written offer</b> to supply the source for all
GPL'd products for the cost of shipping and handling. The source
has to be in its preferred machine readable form, so you cannot
encrypt or obfuscate it. You are not required to provide full
source for all the closed source applications that happen to be
part of the system with BusyBox, though you can certainly do so
if you feel like it. But providing source for the GPL licensed
applications such as BusyBox is mandatory.
<p>
<b>Accompanied by source</b> generally means you distribute the full
source code for all GPL'd products including BusyBox along with your
product, such as by placing it somewhere on a driver CD. Full source
code includes the BusyBox ".config" file used when your shipping BusyBox
binary was compiled, and any and all modifications you made to the
BusyBox source code.
<p>
<b>A written offer</b> generally means that somewhere in the
documentation for your product, you write something like
<blockquote>
The GPL source code contained in this product is available as a
free download from http://blah.blah.blah/
</blockquote>
Alternatively, you can offer the source code by writing
somewhere in the documentation for your product something like
<blockquote>
If you would like a copy of the GPL source code contained in this
product shipped to you on CD, please send $9.99 to &lt;address&gt;
which covers the cost of preparing and mailing a CD to you.
</blockquote>
<p>
Keep in mind though that if you distribute GPL'd binaries online (as is often
done when supplying firmware updates), it is <b>highly</b> recommended that you
make the corresponding source available online at the same place. Regardless,
if you distribute a binary copy of BusyBox online (such as part of a firmware
update) you <b>must</b> either make source available online (i.e.
<b>accompanied by source</b>) and/or inform those downloading firmware updates
of their right to obtain source (i.e. <b>a written offer</b>). Failure to do
so is a violation of your licensing obligations.
<p>
Some people have the mistaken understanding that if they use unmodified
GPL'd source code, they do not need to distribute anything. This belief
is not correct, and is not supported by the
<a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html">text of GPL</a>.
Please do re-read it -- you will find there is no such provision.
If you distribute any GPL'd binaries, you must also make source available
as discussed on this webpage.
<p>
<h3>A Good Example</h3> <h3>A Good Example</h3>
These days, <a href="http://www.linksys.com/">Linksys</a> is <p>These days, <a href="http://www.linksys.com/">Linksys</a> is
doing a good job at complying with the GPL, they get to be an doing a good job at complying with the GPL, they get to be an
example of how to do things right. Please take a moment and example of how to do things right. Please take a moment and
check out what they do with check out what they do with
<a href="http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Content_C1&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1115416836002&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper"> <a href="http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Content_C1&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1115416836002&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper">
distributing the firmware for their WRT54G Router.</a> distributing the firmware for their WRT54G Router.</a>
Following their example would be a fine way to ensure that you Following their example would be a fine way to ensure that you
have also fulfilled your licensing obligations. have also fulfilled your licensing obligations.</p>
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