[U-Boot-Users] GPL

[Wolfgang Denk]

In message <37FB7AA6F5F9814FB634A7BF4C35A6F501214125 at ESEALNT442.al.sw.ericsson.se> you wrote:
> 
> we have some troubles with one of our 3rd party suppliers. We are using U-boot and would like to run some of the
> 3rd party code from U-boot. Could  -->

Actually, I don't  see  where  the  problem  is.  If  they  are  your
suppliers,  you  can  tell  them what you want. Tell them you want to
have their code licensed under GPL, and the world is a happier  place
;-)

> 5.12. U-Boot Standalone Applications
> U-Boot allows to dynamically load and run "standalone" applications, which can use some resources of U-Boot like console I/O functions, memory allocation or interrupt services. 
> be used to avoid GPL???

Not to avoid GPL. You don't want to avoid GPL, you want to appreciate
it, because without GPL you wouldn;t be running  U-Boot,  nor  Linux,
nor  GCC,  nor  many other of the Free Software tools you are used to
use.

But yes, as you can implement  standalone  programs  such  that  they
don't  make use of any internal of the U-Boot implementation and just
use the "officially" exported system call interface, it  is  possible
to  write  standalone  applications  which can be distributed under a
different license, which may be not compatible with the GPL. Although
I don;t encourage such use, it is acceptable from the legal point  of
view.

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

-- 
Software Engineering:  Embedded and Realtime Systems,  Embedded Linux
Phone: (+49)-8142-4596-87  Fax: (+49)-8142-4596-88  Email: wd at denx.de
Things are not as simple as they seem at first.        - Edward Thorp