Re: [ECOS] Licensing of OpenSource code and eCos

[Jonathan Larmour <jifl at eCosCentric dot com>]

Peter Vandenabeele wrote:
> May I conclude from the exact text of the ECOS 2.0 license that prorietary
> drivers that are in a separate source tree file, would be allowed by the
> ECOS 2.0 license ?
Yes, provided they are in no way derived or based on eCos code. This 
includes using an existing driver as a template I'm afraid.

> > To achieve that "freedom" with the eCos as an OS, perhaps we need:
> >
> > 1. a system/user space program loader with memory protection support
> > 2. a funny OS interrupt/exception
> > 3. a driver module loader/unloader
> >
> > Only then it could be fully GPL-ed.
It was a deliberate design choice in eCos *not* to have a kernel/user 
space division. And a driver module loader/unloader is a useful feature to 
have in the toolbox, but it shouldn't be a requirement.

> > Otherwise, the eCos can still follow the common practice, that is being
> > available under two licenses one fully GPL-ed and the other fully
> > commercial.
Note that the copyright holder(s) are always entitled to distribute things 
under a different licence, e.g. a commercial one. That way we do give 
commercial organisations who are wary of open source an option. Whether 
this will ever happen in the future or not remains to be seen though.

> I think that for a project that has already reached a critical mass, such 
> as eCos, the ECOS 2.0 license is much better than the dual license concept.
> I would strongly argue against any change to the license on eCos. I explained 
> before why I have an issue with the mandatory Copyright Assignment practice, 
> but that is a completely different aspect of it.
The licence is very unlikely to change. It was difficult enough to arrange 
the current version! :-)

Jifl
--
--[ "You can complain because roses have thorns, or you ]--
--[  can rejoice because thorns have roses." -Lincoln   ]-- Opinions==mine


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