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[lwip-users] RE: [lwip] Should LwIP go (L)GPL ?


From: Adam Dunkels
Subject: [lwip-users] RE: [lwip] Should LwIP go (L)GPL ?
Date: Wed, 08 Jan 2003 23:26:27 -0000

On Fri, 2002-10-18 at 23:47, Paul Sheer wrote:
> further, if we use the "LGPL", then they can continue
> as usual. the only difference is that they need to
> supply us the lwip source tree they are using

First, there is not really any "we" or "us" when it comes to the lwIP
code licensing. It is only the copyright holder who has the power to
change a copyright license and the copyright to the core lwIP code
belongs to the Swedish Institute of Computer Science (SICS). Neither
SICS nor I (as SICS' repressentative) have any intentions to change the
lwIP license from the BSD license it has today.

I believe the main reason why lwIP has such a big following is the way
it is licensed. If lwIP had been released under the GPL (or the LGPL for
that matter), almost nobody would have been able to use it and most
would have given the project only a cursory interest. A lot of people
has pointed this out, both on this mailing list and through personal
communication with me.

As Jani pointed out, the reason why lwIP does not have a bunch of
developers writing code for it is the bad development model it is had.
That will definately change with Leon's Savannah setup.

The lwIP code will continue to be BSD licensed. In fact, I will actively
work against any GPL stuff in the core code. Of course, GPL additions a
contrib/ directory (as Florian suggested) are very welcome, but it is
important for everyone to keep them on a certain distance from the core
code so that people won't accidentaly include them in projects which
cannot contain GPL code.

/adam
-- 
Adam Dunkels <address@hidden>
http://www.sics.se/~adam/

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