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<!-- Copyright (C) 2003 Red Hat, Inc.                                -->
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>eCos Licence Overview</TITLE
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><DIV
CLASS="CHAPTER"
><H1
><A
NAME="ECOS-LICENSING">Chapter 3. <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>eCos</SPAN
> Licence Overview</H1
><DIV
CLASS="TOC"
><DL
><DT
><B
>Table of Contents</B
></DT
><DT
><A
HREF="ecos-licensing.html#ECOS-LICENSING-QNA"
>Questions and answers</A
></DT
><DT
><A
HREF="ecos-licensing-previous.html"
>Previous License</A
></DT
></DL
></DIV
><P
>As of May 2002, <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>eCos</SPAN
> is released
under a modified version of the well known <A
HREF="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html"
TARGET="_top"
>GNU General Public License
(GPL)</A
>, now making it an <A
HREF="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/license-list.html"
TARGET="_top"
>official
GPL-compatible Free Software License</A
>. An exception clause has
been added to the <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>eCos</SPAN
> license which limits
the circumstances in which the license applies to other code when used
in conjunction with <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>eCos</SPAN
>. The exception
clause is as follows:</P
><TABLE
BORDER="5"
BGCOLOR="#E0E0F0"
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><TR
><TD
><PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
> As a special exception, if other files instantiate templates or use macros
 or inline functions from this file, or you compile this file and link it
 with other works to produce a work based on this file, this file does not
 by itself cause the resulting work to be covered by the GNU General Public
 License. However the source code for this file must still be made
 available in accordance with section (3) of the GNU General Public
 License.
 
 This exception does not invalidate any other reasons why a work based on
 this file might be covered by the GNU General Public License.</PRE
></TD
></TR
></TABLE
><P
>The goal of the license is to serve the
<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>eCos</SPAN
> user community as a whole. It allows
all <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>eCos</SPAN
> users to develop products without
paying anybody anything, no matter how many developers are working on
the product or how many units will be shipped. The license also
guarantees that the <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>eCos</SPAN
> source code will
always be freely available. This applies not only to the core
<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>eCos</SPAN
> code itself but also to any changes
that anybody makes to the core. In particular, it should prevent any
company or individual contributing code to the system and then later
claiming that all <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>eCos</SPAN
> users are now guilty
of copyright or patent infringements and have to pay royalties. It
should also prevent any company from making some small improvements,
calling the result a completely new system, and releasing this under a
new and less generous license.</P
><P
>The license does <SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>not</I
></SPAN
> require users to
release the source code of any <SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>applications</I
></SPAN
> that
are developed with <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>eCos</SPAN
>. However, if
anybody makes any changes to code covered by the
<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>eCos</SPAN
> license, or writes new files derived
in any way from <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>eCos</SPAN
> code, then we believe
that the entire user community should have the opportunity to benefit
from this. The license stipulates that these changes must be made
available in source code form to all recipients of binaries based on
the modified code, either by including the sources along with the
binaries you deliver (or with any device containing such binaries) or
with a written offer to supply the source code to the general public
for three years. It is perhaps most practical for
<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>eCos</SPAN
> developers to make the source code
available online and inform those who are receiving binaries
containing <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>eCos</SPAN
> code, and probably also the
<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>eCos</SPAN
> maintainers, about the location of the
code. See the <A
HREF="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html"
TARGET="_top"
>full
text of the GPL</A
> for the most authoritative definition of the
obligations.</P
><P
>Although it is not strictly necessary to contribute the modified
code back to the <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>eCos</SPAN
> open source project,
we are always pleased to receive code contributions and hope that
developers will also be keen to give back in return for what they
received from the <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>eCos</SPAN
> project completely
free of charge.  The <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>eCos</SPAN
> maintainers are
responsible for deciding whether such contributions should be applied
to the public repository. In addition, a <A
HREF="http://sources.redhat.com/ecos/assign.html"
TARGET="_top"
>copyright
assignment</A
> is required for any significant changes to the core
<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>eCos</SPAN
> packages.</P
><P
>The result is a royalty-free system with minimal obligations on
the part of application developers. This has resulted in the rapid
uptake of <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>eCos</SPAN
>. At the same time,
<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>eCos</SPAN
> is fully open source with all the
benefits that implies in terms of quality and innovation. We believe
that this is a winning combination.</P
><DIV
CLASS="SECT1"
><H1
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
NAME="ECOS-LICENSING-QNA">Questions and answers</H1
><P
>The following queries provide some clarification as to the
implications of the <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>eCos</SPAN
> license. They do
not consititute part of the legal meaning of the license.</P
><P
><SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>Q.</I
></SPAN
> What is the effect of the
<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>eCos</SPAN
> license?</P
><P
><SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>A.</I
></SPAN
> In the simplest terms, when you
distribute anything containing <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>eCos</SPAN
> code,
you must make the source code to <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>eCos</SPAN
>
available under the terms of the GPL.</P
><P
><SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>Q.</I
></SPAN
> What if I make changes to
<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>eCos</SPAN
>, or write new code based on
<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>eCos</SPAN
> code?</P
><P
><SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>A.</I
></SPAN
> Then you must make those changes
available as well.</P
><P
><SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>Q.</I
></SPAN
> Do I have to distribute the source
code to my application? Isn't the GPL "viral"?</P
><P
><SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>A.</I
></SPAN
> You do not have to distribute any
code under the terms of the GPL other than
<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>eCos</SPAN
> code or code derived from
<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>eCos</SPAN
>. For example, if you write a HAL port
based on copying an existing <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>eCos</SPAN
> HAL in
any way, you must make the source code available with the
binary. However you would not need to make available any other code,
such as the code of a wholly separate application linked with
<SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>eCos</SPAN
>.</P
><P
><SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>Q.</I
></SPAN
> I would rather stick with the
RHEPL code, but I updated my anonymous CVS checkout.</P
><P
><SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>A.</I
></SPAN
> You can check out the final
version of anonymous CVS before the license change using the CVS tag
<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>last-rhepl</TT
>. See <A
HREF="http://sources.redhat.com/ecos/anoncvs.html"
TARGET="_top"
>the anonymous CVS
access page</A
>
for details.</P
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