Busybox under closed-source-license avaiable?

[Denys Vlasenko]

On Tuesday 14 October 2008 04:54:03 am Alain M. wrote:
> Rob Landley escreveu:
> > Look: Linux has been under GPLv2 for _seventeen_years_.  The license is not 
> > exactly new and untested.  Busybox is under the same license as the Linux 
> > kernel for a _reason_.
> 
> So... if someone needs a proprietary licence for Busybox, it will most 
> certainly be to run on a *proprietary licened Linux*... quite absurd!!!
> 
> I have followed this thread and nowhere I have seen two important points:
> 
> 1) a GPLed software like Busybox can be used in a proprietary product, 
> as long as not linked at all with the proprietary part. Even in an 
> embedded it can be used.

Yes. However, the sources (of the busybox, not the entire product)
must still be made available. If you do no fixes to it at all,
or maybe just a few simple ones, this cannot harm you
as a business in any way. You do not give your competitors
anything new, they can as well fetch busybox source from busybox.net!

> 2) Why is this person (I don't remember how the thread started) need a 
> proprietary licece at all, instead of simply following the guidelines 
> and use Linux+Busybox for free?

Most likely reason: they doesn't grok all this GPL stuff well enough
to see that they actually *don't need proprietary license*, they
*can* use busybox under GNU (as described above).

Less likely: they want to add some Extremely Valuable and Clever Code
Which will Make Their Product Better Than the Competition,
and they don't want to give it back. I certainly can understand
such a desire, but will this code really be so good? Without code review?
Without community testing and feedback?

Considering the typical code quality of embedded devices I saw,
I'd say this rarely succeeds. The code in there is often written badly.
I need to reboot my phone once in a few weeks, it catches some glitch
and doesn't ring anymore. I've seen plenty of modems which need the same
a few times a day; which can't reliably find default route etc...
--
vda