From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1I1kwk-0006FI-QJ for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Fri, 22 Jun 2007 11:21:14 -0400 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1I1kwk-0006Ez-6U for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Fri, 22 Jun 2007 11:21:14 -0400 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1I1kwk-0006Es-0Q for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Fri, 22 Jun 2007 11:21:14 -0400 Received: from cpe-24-31-250-242.kc.res.rr.com ([24.31.250.242] helo=hachi.dashjr.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1I1kwj-0001uX-KX for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Fri, 22 Jun 2007 11:21:13 -0400 Received: from [192.168.29.4] (adsl-76-194-177-181.dsl.ksc2mo.sbcglobal.net [76.194.177.181]) (Authenticated sender: luke-jr) by hachi.dashjr.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E6B89960B6B for ; Fri, 22 Jun 2007 15:21:12 +0000 (UTC) From: Luke -Jr Subject: Re: [Qemu-devel] QEMU License and proprietary hardware Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2007 10:21:11 -0500 References: <265202.13601.qm@web57004.mail.re3.yahoo.com> In-Reply-To: <265202.13601.qm@web57004.mail.re3.yahoo.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200706221021.11803.luke@dashjr.org> Reply-To: qemu-devel@nongnu.org List-Id: qemu-devel.nongnu.org List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , To: qemu-devel@nongnu.org On Friday 22 June 2007 00:34, Balazs Attila-Mihaly (Cd-MaN) wrote: > I must prefix this with the fact that IANAL, but as I understand it, you > must release the source code only if you distribute that modified system > (with GPL v2). That is, if you use this system internally in you company, > you don't have to provide your modifications. But if you, for example, > provide your clients with the modified version, you have the obligation to > provide them (your clients, not the Qemu community in general) also with > the complete source code, after which they have the liberty to redistribute > the source code under the GPL. Correct. > One solution would be (again, IANAL, so please check with a real lawyer :D), The solution would be to comply with the GPL and release the code. :) > is to create an interface to the code you wish to include and put the > proprietary code in a dynamically linked library which exposes this > interface. In this case IMHO you have to provide only the code which > implements the interface in Qemu and loads the shared library, and you would > have no obligation regarding the code in the shared library. The GPL is viral. A derivative-work wrapper would be under the full GPL terms and could not link out to a proprietary library either. While there are legal loopholes in the GPL, this is not one of them. (and no, I will not provide any more info on the loopholes I am aware of)