+++ Austin Chen [05-08-26 15:12 +0800]:
> Due to English is not my nature language, I don't fully understand the 
> GPL. If I use GPL method to incorporate the YAFFS in my design, should I 
> open all the source code of my design? I can agree to open the source that 
> I modified in the YAFFS but not the application that contains file 
> operations. If only YAFFS code need to be opened, I can and glad to use 
> the GPL.

We normally keep licence discussions off-list, both because they can get
very boring and because companies usually prefer to discuss such things in
private. I'm happy to keep this thread on-list for now if Austin is, and
people don't mind - but please shout if you find you've had enough :-)

The issue here is the combination of the GPL and the Nucleus licence and
technology.

I can't actually find a copy of the nucleos licence on their website, but my
understanding of the OS is that what you get after building with YAFFS
included is a statically-linked binary for your particular device, including
YAFFS and the kernel. Your application may also be statically linked into
this blob too but lets ignore that for now.

In this case the resulting work would be considered to be a derivative work
and thus the GPL would apply to all of it. This means that (once you
distribute it outside your office) you would need to distribute the source
for both your application and the nucleos source.

This is not what you want, because the Nucleos licence (almost certainly)
won't let you distribute their source. It is also possible that your
aplpication could be considered derived in this case too (depending on how
Nucleos puts things together), and as you don't want to distribute source
for that either, that's a second reason why the GPL is not appropriate.

So, in your case you almost certainly need an Aleph One licence for YAFFS so
that you don't need to worry about GPL compliance. We can write you whatever
licence you need to make it work in your context. Basically you are 'buying
out' the GPL source distribution requirement imposed on free use of the
code. You pay money instead of contributing your code to the GPL pool.

I hope that all makes sense.

If anyone can point me to a copy of the Nucleos licence to check that the
above does indeed apply, that would be handy.

Wookey
-- 
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work: http://www.aleph1.co.uk/     play: http://www.chaos.org.uk/~wookey/