1 | <!--#include file="header.html" -->
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2 |
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3 | <p>
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4 | <h3>BusyBox is licensed under the GNU General Public License</h3>
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5 |
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6 | <p>BusyBox is licensed under <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html#SEC1">the
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7 | GNU General Public License</a> version 2 or later, which is generally
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8 | abbreviated as the GPL. (This is the same license the Linux kernel is under,
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9 | so you may be somewhat familiar with it by now.)</p>
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10 |
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11 | <p><a href="/products.html">Anyone thinking of shipping BusyBox as part of a
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12 | product</a> should be familiar with the licensing terms under which they are
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13 | allowed to use and distribute BusyBox. Read the full test of the GPL (either
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14 | through the above link, or in the file LICENSE in the busybox tarball), and
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15 | also read the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html">Frequently
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16 | Asked Questions about the GPL</a>.</p>
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17 |
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18 | <p>Basically, if you distribute GPL software the license requires that you also
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19 | distribute the source code to that GPL-licensed software. So if you distribute
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20 | BusyBox without making the source code to the version you distribute available,
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21 | you violate the license terms, and thus infringe on the copyrights of BusyBox.
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22 | (This requirement applies whether or not you modified BusyBox; either way the
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23 | license terms still apply to you.) Read the license text for the details.</p>
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24 |
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25 | <p>BusyBox's copyrights are enforced by the <a
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26 | href="http://www.softwarefreedom.org">Software Freedom Law Center</a>, which
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27 | "accepts primary responsibility for enforcement of US copyrights on the
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28 | software... and coordinates international copyright enforcement efforts for
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29 | such works as necessary." If you distribute BusyBox in a way that doesn't
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30 | comply with the terms of the license BusyBox is distributed under, expect to
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31 | hear from these guys. Their entire reason for existing is to do pro-bono
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32 | legal work for free/open source software projects. (We used to list people who
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33 | violate the BusyBox license in <a href="/shame.html">The Hall of Shame</a>,
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34 | but these days we find it much more effective to hand them over to the
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35 | lawyers.)</p>
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36 |
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37 | <p>Our enforcement efforts are aimed at bringing people into compliance with
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38 | the BusyBox license. Open source software is under a different license from
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39 | proprietary software, but if you violate that license you're still a software
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40 | pirate and the law gives the vendor (us) some big sticks to play with. We
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41 | don't want monetary awards, injunctions, or to generate bad PR for a company,
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42 | unless that's the only way to get somebody that repeatedly ignores us to comply
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43 | with the license on our code.</p>
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44 |
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45 | <h3>A Good Example</h3>
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46 |
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47 | <p>These days, <a href="http://www.linksys.com/">Linksys</a> is
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48 | doing a good job at complying with the GPL, they get to be an
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49 | example of how to do things right. Please take a moment and
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50 | check out what they do with
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51 | <a href="http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Content_C1&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1115416836002&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper">
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52 | distributing the firmware for their WRT54G Router.</a>
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53 | Following their example would be a fine way to ensure that you
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54 | have also fulfilled your licensing obligations.</p>
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55 |
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