Re: LGPL or GPL+"plugins welcome" ?

[Stefaan A Eeckels]

On Tue, 06 Jul 2004 15:43:52 +0200
Alexander Terekhov <terekhov@web.de> wrote:

> 
> Stefaan A Eeckels wrote:
> [...]
> > Parts of the kernel are copyright Linus Torvalds,
> > thus your second statement is incorrect.
> 
> Idiot.

Name calling won't get you anywhere, or sympathy :-) 

If you're not happy with the idea that you goofed
when you said that there weren't _any_ exceptions,
what about (from the 2.4.18 source tree):

|       This software may be used and distributed according to the terms of
|       the GNU General Public License (GPL), incorporated herein by reference.
|       Drivers based on or derived from this code fall under the GPL and must
|       retain the authorship, copyright and license notice.  This file is not
|       a complete program and may only be used when the entire operating
|       system is licensed under the GPL. (from drivers/net/8139cp.c)

| /*  Copyright, 1988-1992, Russell Nelson, Crynwr Software
| 
|    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
|    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
|    the Free Software Foundation, version 1. (from drivers/net/cs89x0.h)

An extension, and a module under version 1. There are
also a a couple of modules under the BSD license (cfr.
drivers/net/bsd_comp.c, scsi/aic7xxx/queue.h). 
Other modules are licensed under version 2 or any later
version, some under version 2 alone.

Then there is this (from char/tpqic02.c):

| * Copyright (c) 1992--1996 by H. H. Bergman. All rights reserved.
| * Current e-mail address: hennus@cybercomm.nl
| *
| * Distribution of this program in executable form is only allowed if
| * all of the corresponding source files are made available through the same
| * medium at no extra cost.
| *
| * I will not accept any responsibility for damage caused directly or
| * indirectly by this program, or code derived from this program.
| *
| * Use this code at your own risk. Don't blame me if it destroys your data!
| * Make sure you have a backup before you try this code.
| *
| * If you make changes to my code and redistribute it in source or binary
| * form you must make it clear to even casual users of your code that you
| * have modified my code, clearly point out what the changes exactly are
| * (preferably in the form of a context diff file), how to undo your changes,
| * where the original can be obtained, and that complaints/requests about the
| * modified code should be directed to you instead of me.
| *
| * This driver was partially inspired by the 'wt' driver in the 386BSD
| * source distribution, which carries the following copyright notice:
| *
| *  Copyright (c) 1991 The Regents of the University of California.
| *  All rights reserved.
| *
| * You are not allowed to change this line nor the text above.

Which is clearly not the GPL (source available through the same
medium).

Thus, your utterance to the effect that

> The kernel is licensed under the GPL without any exceptions.

is incorrect.

-- 
Stefaan
-- 
"What is stated clearly conceives easily."  -- Inspired sales droid