[U-Boot] License Problems for standalone application at u-boot

[Peter Chen]

Dear Wolfgang,

I have still some puzzled which you wrote below :

1. Does jump table means the function lists which the standalone
applications uses?

2. If the functions includes some u-boot header file, it belongs to
derived work or not?

Thank you!

 NOTE! This copyright does *not* cover the so-called "standalone"
applications that use U-Boot services by means of the jump table
provided by U-Boot exactly for this purpose - this is merely
considered normal use of U-Boot, and does *not* fall under the 
heading of "derived work".

  The header files "include/image.h" and "include/asm-*/u-boot.h"
define interfaces to U-Boot. Including these (unmodified) header
files in another file is considered normal use of U-Boot, and does
*not* fall under the heading of "derived work".

  Also note that the GPL below is copyrighted by the Free Software
Foundation, but the instance of code that it refers to (the U-Boot
source code) is copyrighted by me and others who actually wrote it. 
-- Wolfgang Denk



Best Regards,
Peter Chen


On Fri, 2009-08-14 at 07:42 +0200, Wolfgang Denk wrote:

> Dear Peter,
> 
> in message <1250220295.7144.18.camel at nchen-desktop> you wrote:
> > 
> > We have a standalone application, and u-boot will supply jump address
> > and some services to this application.
> > I wonder are there any license problems (GPL or u-boot) for our
> > standalone application at below condition:
> > 
> > 1. Some services which we wrote have included some u-boot header file?
> > 2. All the services we wrote by ourselves, and not using any u-boot
> > source code and header file?
> > 
> > Currently, we are number 1 situation.
> 
> Please see the first paragraphs of the COPYING file that comes with
> the U-Boot sources; this explains the GPL exception for standalone
> programs.
> 
> Please let me know if you have additional questions.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Wolfgang Denk
>