Re: [ECOS] eCos and GPL (was : Re: [ECOS] Lucent WaveLAN PC card with EBD72xxx)

[Jonathan Larmour <jlarmour at redhat dot com>]

elf@florence.buici.com wrote:
> 
> IIRC, the redhat license is more specific in permitting people to
> reuse the software for commercial use, without requiring source
> disclosure in running systems.  GPL requires that anything
> (statically) linked with GPL code must also be available in source
> form as any such entity is considered an improvement on the original.
> RedHat relaxes this constraint.

Yes. This is one of the reasons not to use the straight GPL. Another reason
is the clause that says that all changes to RHEPL covered code, or
derivatives, must be posted to ecos-discuss. This is for the benefit of
all: Red Hat can't safely incorporate such changes without a copyright
assignment so it's not selfish.

We could license eCos with the GPL but add a libgcc-style exemption if you
know what that is. There are potentially other possibilities and we have
had some internal discussions on this matter. But don't expect too much
progress any time soon. Here be lawyers.

Jifl
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