[Yaffs] Re: Use YAFFS in RTOS

[Austin Chen]

I am sure my whole design include YAFFS, Nucleus Plus and application should 
be all in source code form and statically linked together. And yes, the 
Nucleus Plus don't allow me to disclose its source. Therefore I can not use 
the GPL. This is clear now. Thank you!

Austin

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Wookey" <wookey at aleph1.co.uk>
To: <yaffs at stoneboat.aleph1.co.uk>
Cc: "Austin Chen" <austin at chen.name>
Sent: Friday, August 26, 2005 9:08 PM
Subject: Re: Use YAFFS in RTOS


> +++ 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
> -- 
> Aleph One Ltd, Bottisham, CAMBRIDGE, CB5 9BA, UK  Tel +44 (0) 1223 811679
> work: http://www.aleph1.co.uk/     play: http://www.chaos.org.uk/~wookey/
>
>