Busybox GPL violator: LaCie

[thinkliberty]

There IS a requirement to provide the tool chain in section 3 of the GPL

"The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work formaking
modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source code means all
the source code for all modules it contains, plus any associated interface
definition files, plus the scripts used to control compilation and
installation of the executable."

See  http://gpl-violators.org/faq/sourcecode-faq.html Under the section
"What about the compiler, the toolchian?"

"The GPL explicitly states:
" However, as a special exception, the source code distributed need not
include anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary
form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the
operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component itself
accompanies the executable. "

Clearly, this paragraph is written for userspace programs running on
existing general purpose operating systems. So if you have only distributed
such programs, then you do not need to include compiler, kernel, linker, and
so on.

Particularly in the case of cross-compilation for embedded platforms, the
cross compiler for your specific hardware is very likely not something that
is "normally distributed with ... the operating system".

Therefore, in such cases, you have to provide the the exact version of your
compiler toolchain that was used to create the executables that you have
distributed. Please note that in most cases this will be GNU gcc, which is
itself GPL licensed, so the GPL obligations will in turn apply to the
toolchain, and you must release the complete corresponding source code to it
as well."
Best regards


On 3/9/07, Paul Fox <pgf at brightstareng.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> there is no requirement that GPL'ed code be accompanied by all
> of its build tools -- they're _never_ required to give you the
> tool chain, any more than they're required to give you tools to
> program an image into their flash memory.  the GPL goals of
> "freedom for the user" aren't a very good match with current
> embedded systems, but that's just the way it is.
>
> paul
> =---------------------
> paul fox, pgf at brightstareng.com
> _______________________________________________
> busybox mailing list
> busybox at busybox.net
> http://busybox.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/busybox
>
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