[Buildroot] Report of the Buildroot Developer Day, February 3, 2012 - Legal info

Yann E. MORIN yann.morin.1998 at free.fr
Thu Feb 16 12:53:55 UTC 2012


Will, All,

On Thursday 16 February 2012 13:17:51 Will Moore wrote:
> Without getting into a lot of IANAL stuff (!) please could somebody explain to
> me why the cross-compiler for GPLv2 packages is included in this list?

Because the it is not (see section 3 of the GPL text) :
  "normally distributed [...] with the major components [...] on which the
   executable runs."

For embedded systems, there is propbably no compiler running on the target,
so it can not be considered "normally distributed" on that system.

Also, bits from the compiler can end up on the target rootfs (eg. libgcc.so).
And the C library also (libc.so et al.).

So, it is easier to play it safe-and-sound, and provide the complete source
of the toolchain. Then, it will be the responsibility of the buildroot user
to decide whether it is required or not to distribute it, and whether or not
to actually distribute it. As Arnout wrote:
> It is up to the user's legal office to decide what will actually
> be released and what not.

But, of course: IANAL ! ;-)

Regards,
Yann E. MORIN.

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