svn commit: trunk/busybox/docs/busybox.net

landley at busybox.net landley at busybox.net
Tue Jun 27 20:47:09 UTC 2006 

Author: landley
Date: 2006-06-27 13:47:08 -0700 (Tue, 27 Jun 2006)
New Revision: 15535

Log:
Redo the license section completely, and update the header to group the tabs.


Modified:
   trunk/busybox/docs/busybox.net/header.html
   trunk/busybox/docs/busybox.net/license.html


Changeset:
Modified: trunk/busybox/docs/busybox.net/header.html
===================================================================
--- trunk/busybox/docs/busybox.net/header.html	2006-06-27 18:59:57 UTC (rev 15534)
+++ trunk/busybox/docs/busybox.net/header.html	2006-06-27 20:47:08 UTC (rev 15535)
@@ -43,19 +43,31 @@
 <tr>
 
 <td valign="TOP">
-    <br><a href="/news.html">Latest News</a>
-    <br><a href="/about.html">About</a>
-    <br>Documentation:
-    <ul><li><a href="/FAQ.html">FAQ</a></li><li><a href="downloads/BusyBox.html>Manual</a></li><li><a href="downloads/README">README</a></li></ul>
-    <br><a href="/download.html">Download</a>
-    <br><a href="/screenshot.html">Screenshot</a>
-    <br><a href="/lists.html">Mailing Lists</a>
-    <br><a href="/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/trunk/busybox/">Browse Source</a>
-    <br><a href="/subversion.html">Accessing Source</a>
-    <br><a href="http://bugs.busybox.net/">Bug Tracking</a>
-    <br><a href="/products.html">Products</a>
-    <br><a href="/shame.html">Hall of Shame</a>
-    <br><a href="/license.html">License</a>
+    <b>About</b>
+    <ul>
+      <li><a href="/about.html">About BusyBox</a></li>
+      <li><a href="/screenshot.html">Screenshot</a></li>
+      <li><a href="/news.html">Latest News</a></li>
+    </ul>
+    <b>Documentation</b>
+    <ul>
+        <li><a href="/FAQ.html">FAQ</a></li>
+        <li><a href="downloads/BusyBox.html>Command Help</a></li>
+        <li><a href="downloads/README">README</a></li>
+    </ul>
+    <b>Development</b>
+    <ul>
+        <li><a href="/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/trunk/busybox/">Browse Source</a></li>
+        <li><a href="/subversion.html">Source Control</a></li>
+        <li><a href="/lists.html">Mailing Lists</a></li>
+        <li><a href="http://bugs.busybox.net/">Bug Tracking</a></li>
+    </ul>
+    <b>Get BusyBox</b>
+    <ul>
+        <li><a href="/download.html">Download Source</a></li>
+        <li><a href="/license.html">License</a></li>
+        <li><a href="/products.html">Products</a></li>
+    </ul>
 
     <p><b>Related Sites</b>
     <br><a href="http://uclibc.org/">uClibc.org</a>

Modified: trunk/busybox/docs/busybox.net/license.html
===================================================================
--- trunk/busybox/docs/busybox.net/license.html	2006-06-27 18:59:57 UTC (rev 15534)
+++ trunk/busybox/docs/busybox.net/license.html	2006-06-27 20:47:08 UTC (rev 15535)
@@ -1,135 +1,57 @@
 <!--#include file="header.html" -->
 
-
-<h3>The GPL BusyBox license</h3>
-
-There has been some confusion in the past as to exactly what is
-required to safely distribute GPL'd software such as BusyBox as
-part of a product.  To ensure that there is no confusion
-whatsoever, this page attempts to summarize what you should do to
-ensure you do not accidentally violate the law.
-
 <p>
-<h3>Complying with the BusyBox license is easy and completely free.</h3>
-
-U.S. and International Law protects copyright owners from the unauthorized
-reproduction, adaptation, display, distribution, etc of copyright protected
-works.  Copyright violations (such as shipping BusyBox in a manner contrary to
-its license) are subject to severe penalties.  The courts can award up to
-$150,000 per product shipped without even showing any actual loss by the
-copyright holder.  Criminal penalties are available for intentional acts
-undertaken for purposes of "commercial advantage" or "private financial gain."
-In addition, if it comes to my attention that you are violating the BusyBox
-license, I will list you on the <a href="/shame.html">BusyBox Hall of Shame</a>
-webpage.
-
-<p>
-
-Nobody wants that to happen.  Do everyone a favor and don't break the law -- if
-you use BusyBox, you <b>must comply with the BusyBox license</b>.
-
-<p>
 <h3>BusyBox is licensed under the GNU General Public License</h3>
 
-BusyBox is licensed under the GNU General Public License , which
-is generally just abbreviated as the GPL license, or
-just the GPL.
-<p>
-<a href="/products.html">Anyone thinking of shipping
-BusyBox as part of a product</a> should be familiar with the
-licensing terms under which they are allowed to use and
-distribute BusyBox.  You are advised to take a look over the
+<p>BusyBox is licensed under <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html#SEC1">the
+GNU General Public License</a> version 2 or later, which is generally
+abbreviated as the GPL.  (This is the same license the Linux kernel is under,
+so you may be somewhat familiar with it by now.)</p>
 
-<ul>
-<li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html">full text of
-the GNU General Public License</a>, and
-<li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html">
-Frequently Asked Questions about the GNU GPL</a>
-</ul>
-to be sure you (and your lawyers) fully understand them.
+<p><a href="/products.html">Anyone thinking of shipping BusyBox as part of a
+product</a> should be familiar with the licensing terms under which they are
+allowed to use and distribute BusyBox.  Read the full test of the GPL (either
+through the above link, or in the file LICENSE in the busybox tarball), and
+also read the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html">Frequently
+Asked Questions about the GPL</a>.</p>
 
-<p>
+<p>Basically, if you distribute GPL software the license requires that you also
+distribute the source code to that GPL-licensed software.  So if you distribute
+BusyBox without making the source code to the version you distribute available,
+you violate the license terms, and thus infringe on the copyrights of BusyBox.
+(This requirement applies whether or not you modified BusyBox; either way the
+license terms still apply to you.)  Read the license text for the details.</p>
 
-The following is a quick summary for the impatient.  If you
-carefully follow these steps, it will ensure that you are 100%
-authorized to ship BusyBox with your product, and have no reason
-to worry about lawsuits or being listed on the <a
-href="/shame.html">BusyBox Hall of Shame</a> page.  You will be
-able to sleep peacefully at night knowing you have fulfilled all
-your licensing obligations.
+<p>BusyBox's copyrights are enforced by the <a
+href="http://www.softwarefreedom.org">Software Freedom Law Center</a>, which
+"accepts primary responsibility for enforcement of US copyrights on the
+software... and coordinates international copyright enforcement efforts for
+such works as necessary."  If you distribute BusyBox in a way that doesn't
+comply with the terms of the license BusyBox is distributed under, expect to
+hear from these guys.  Their entire reason for existing is to do pro-bono
+legal work for free/open source software projects.  (We used to list people who
+violate the BusyBox license in <a href="/shame.html">The Hall of Shame</a>,
+but these days we find it much more effective to hand them over to the
+lawyers.)</p>
 
-<p>
+<p>Our enforcement efforts are aimed at bringing people into compliance with
+the BusyBox license.  Open source software is under a different license from
+proprietary software, but if you violate that license you're still a software
+pirate and the law gives the vendor (us) some big sticks to play with.  We
+don't want monetary awards, injunctions, or to generate bad PR for a company,
+unless that's the only way to get somebody that repeatedly ignores us to comply
+with the license on our code.</p>
 
-If you distribute a product, it should either be accompanied by
-<b>full source for all GPL'd products</b> (including BusyBox)
-and/or a <b>written offer</b> to supply the source for all
-GPL'd products for the cost of shipping and handling.  The source
-has to be in its preferred machine readable form, so you cannot
-encrypt or obfuscate it.  You are not required to provide full
-source for all the closed source applications that happen to be
-part of the system with BusyBox, though you can certainly do so
-if you feel like it.  But providing source for the GPL licensed
-applications such as BusyBox is mandatory.
-
-<p>
-
-<b>Accompanied by source</b> generally means you distribute the full
-source code for all GPL'd products including BusyBox along with your
-product, such as by placing it somewhere on a driver CD.  Full source
-code includes the BusyBox ".config" file used when your shipping BusyBox
-binary was compiled, and any and all modifications you made to the
-BusyBox source code.
-
-<p>
-
-<b>A written offer</b> generally means that somewhere in the
-documentation for your product, you write something like
-
-<blockquote>
-The GPL source code contained in this product is available as a
-free download from http://blah.blah.blah/
-</blockquote>
-Alternatively, you can offer the source code by writing
-somewhere in the documentation for your product something like
-<blockquote>
-If you would like a copy of the GPL source code contained in this
-product shipped to you on CD, please send $9.99 to &lt;address&gt;
-which covers the cost of preparing and mailing a CD to you.
-</blockquote>
-<p>
-
-Keep in mind though that if you distribute GPL'd binaries online (as is often
-done when supplying firmware updates), it is <b>highly</b> recommended that you
-make the corresponding source available online at the same place.  Regardless,
-if you distribute a binary copy of BusyBox online (such as part of a firmware
-update) you <b>must</b> either make source available online (i.e.
-<b>accompanied by source</b>) and/or inform those downloading firmware updates
-of their right to obtain source (i.e. <b>a written offer</b>).  Failure to do
-so is a violation of your licensing obligations.
-
-
-<p>
-
-Some people have the mistaken understanding that if they use unmodified
-GPL'd source code, they do not need to distribute anything.  This belief
-is not correct, and is not supported by the
-<a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html">text of GPL</a>.
-Please do re-read it -- you will find there is no such provision.
-If you distribute any GPL'd binaries, you must also make source available
-as discussed on this webpage.
-
-<p>
 <h3>A Good Example</h3>
 
-These days, <a href="http://www.linksys.com/">Linksys</a> is
+<p>These days, <a href="http://www.linksys.com/">Linksys</a> is
 doing a good job at complying with the GPL, they get to be an
 example of how to do things right.  Please take a moment and
 check out what they do with
 <a href="http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Content_C1&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1115416836002&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper">
 distributing the firmware for their WRT54G Router.</a>
 Following their example would be a fine way to ensure that you
-have also fulfilled your licensing obligations.
+have also fulfilled your licensing obligations.</p>
 
-
 <!--#include file="footer.html" -->

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