Re: [ECOS] HD file system?

[Jonathan Larmour <jifl at eCosCentric dot com>]

Eric Verlind wrote:
> Okay, that's important to realise.
>
> Suppose my company has its own code S, which is containing the company's
> patented IP, constituting the basis of the company's existence. With that we
> make a product called P, which consists of a single, statically linked image
> with eCos used as OS. How sure can I be that patents of my company relating
> to S are not endangered?

If you are using eCos with the eCos licence (the GPL *with* the exception) 
then that's okay. If you incorporate any GPL'd code, e.g. from Linux in 
your application, then everything must be distributed including your 
application.

And about patents, the GPL says: "we have made it clear that any
patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all."

and
"For example, if a patent
license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by
all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then
the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to
refrain entirely from distribution of the Program."

So you could write the program incorporating GPL'd code.... you "just" 
wouldn't be able to give it to anyone!

> What about modifications to the code of eCos itself. Suppose that we make
> modifications to -for example- the scheduler and build in a special,
> patented, scheduling scheme of our own. How secure would that be from
> exposal?

It wouldn't. eCos's licence says you must distribute all code derived in 
any way from eCos code and it would be essentially impossible to do that 
with a new scheduler, so you would either have a choice of permitting all 
users of eCos to using and in turn redistributing that (patented) code 
under eCos's licence, or not distributing it at all.

Jifl
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