[ECOS] GPL licensed files in the CVS tree

[ECOS] GPL licensed files in the CVS tree

[Andreas Schwarz]

Hi All,

In the eCos CVS tree I found some demo code under GPL (not EPL).
As far as I know this demo program must have as final license GPL 
and this is not possible. The following code is  GPLv2 licensed:

ecos/packages/services/gfx/mw/current/src/demos/vnc/vncviewer

Please let me know If I'm wrong.

- Andreas



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[ECOS] Re: GPL licensed files in the CVS tree

[John Dallaway]

Hi Andreas

Andreas Schwarz wrote:

> In the eCos CVS tree I found some demo code under GPL (not EPL).
> As far as I know this demo program must have as final license GPL 
> and this is not possible. The following code is  GPLv2 licensed:
> 
> ecos/packages/services/gfx/mw/current/src/demos/vnc/vncviewer

Thank you for drawing this to our attention.

To be clear, the eCos License is compatible with the GPL in the sense
that it is legal to link eCos licensed code with GPL code and to
distribute the result. However, the entire eCos application (including
your own application code) would then become subject to the terms of the
GPL. [ The above does not constitute legal advice. ]

Although the code you mention is demo code and unlikely to be used
within a product, the presence of GPL run-time code in the eCos
repository is contrary to project policy and I think everything under
src/demos/vnc/ should therefore be removed.

It seems that the VNC demo code has been in the eCos repository for many
years. Does anyone recall any previous discussion about this?

John Dallaway
eCos maintainer
http://www.dallaway.org.uk/john

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[ECOS] Re: GPL licensed files in the CVS tree

[Andreas Schwarz]

Hi  John

> To be clear, the eCos License is compatible with the GPL in the sense
> that it is legal to link eCos licensed code with GPL code and to
> distribute the result. However, the entire eCos application (including
> your own application code) would then become subject to the terms of the
> GPL. [ The above does not constitute legal advice. ]

You're right. I was trying to say that the EPL is not "any more" the final 
license.  

In my project GPL is impossible to use, since I'm using source code which is 
under the BSD 4 clause license (libraries in ecos-tree). This code is not 
allowed to be mixed with GPL. I did not check if the mentioned Demo code is 
using standard libraries under old-BSD licenses.

> Although the code you mention is demo code and unlikely to be used
> within a product, the presence of GPL run-time code in the eCos
> repository is contrary to project policy and I think everything under
> src/demos/vnc/ should therefore be removed.

Where do I find the project policy?

> It seems that the VNC demo code has been in the eCos repository for many
> years. Does anyone recall any previous discussion about this?

- Andreas

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