Re: Contribution of a DHCP server (µDHCP)port to eCOS

[Jonathan Larmour <jifl@eCosCentric.com>]

sebastien Couret wrote:
> Hello Jonathan,(and maintainers)
> 
> I'm sorry but i'm not a lawyer and licencing issues are a bit tricky.

None of us are, but the maintainers have to be aware of these things 
(unfortunately!).

> As U say "the eCos license, which is GPL plus a special 
> exception." . if I had well understood this exception is that you can link 
> your own code with an eCOS library and your own code will stay under your 
> property. (With GPL, your code also becomes GPL ...) Is that it ?

Yes in general with your own code. But with the GPL, there are extra 
requirements to be fulfilled, and one of those is compatible with the BSD 
"advertising clause" which I mentioned before.

> I have tried to obtain a written agreement of all contributors of µDHCP to 
> cahnge GPL to the eCOS licence but many emails are now broken and one of them 
> had strictly refused.
> So I think the best thing I could do is to release it under GPL. 

I think we can expect to have to deal with this type of thing - the 
important thing is that we don't allow any situation where eCos users use 
(full) GPL code without realising it. There are some hurdles to overcome to 
achieve this, which are now being discussed as a result of your situation :-).

> I was also unaware of the FreeBSD licensing clause, If I had understood you 
> have a solution if U can convinced Mr Niels Provos of changing his terms. 
> Am I right ?

That's a definite obstacle. There are a few other files which might be able 
to be worked around easily, but some might be difficult. Most difficult of 
all is the time required as net stacks are tricky things :-|.

> Could you send me templates of what u call a "copyrigth assignement" and 
> "copyright disclaimer"  ?

Sorry, I was probably a little obtuse in my previous mail, but you can read 
all about copyright assignments, including links to the relevant forms at 
<http://ecos.sourceware.org/patches-assignment.html>. The forms themselves 
are at <http://ecos.sourceware.org/assign.html>

> I'm the only contributor for the changes needed by the port so I will fill 
> them in. 

That's super, and will also cover any future contributions you choose to 
make (at least until we complete the transfer to the FSF anyway).

> Thanks for all your good work.

eCos is a community project and contributions drive it. Thanks for your 
good work too :-).

Jifl
-- 
eCosCentric    http://www.eCosCentric.com/    The eCos and RedBoot experts
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