[BusyBox] Licence

Erik Andersen andersen at codepoet.org
Wed Dec 10 19:18:53 UTC 2003


On Wed Dec 10, 2003 at 06:03:10PM +0000, david stevenson wrote:
> Eric I note your hall of shame page.  I do not know what the
> companies listed have released, but I would like to confirm
> that a commercial embedded product can include both busybox and
> non gpl code.
> 
> My understanding is any modifications or linked code would have
> to be gpl, but a separate standalone program, could be called
> from a busybox init without being seen as a derived work. Is
> this correct?

You are correct.

A commercial product can certainly contain BusyBox.  I consider
the use of BusyBox in commercial products a good thing.  The fact
that a product contains BusyBox does not in any way restrict said
product from containing other non GPL code.  Just because you use
BusyBox and/or run on Linux you do not need to give away all your
code.

But you are however obligated to distribute the complete source
code to the exact version of BusyBox distributed with your
product, as well as the complete source code to the exact version
of the Linux kernel, and the complete source code for any other
GPL licenses components contained within your product.

Some people choose to distribute the source on a CD accompanying
their product.  Others choose to simply include a blurb within
their product docs that says something like:

    This product uses software licensed under Open Source
    licenses such as the GPL.  You have the right to acquire this
    source code, change it, and re-distribute it.  The warranty
    on our product is only applicable however if you are using
    the official firmware distributed by us.  The source for the
    Open Source software contained in this product is available
    as a free download here <URL>. If you would like a copy of
    the source code for this product on a CD, please send your
    request to <our address> along with $9.99 to cover our cost
    to prepare and mail the CD to you.

If you distribute your products' firmware online, you should also
make the source code for the Open Source components such as
BusyBox available online.

Does that make things a bit more clear as to what is and is not
legal?

 -Erik

--
Erik B. Andersen             http://codepoet-consulting.com/
--This message was written using 73% post-consumer electrons--



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