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Re: Are copyright assignments detrimental to eCos?


Jiri Gaisler wrote:
Markus Schaber wrote:

Additionally, our company has the policy that any substantial
contribution must be copy-lefted, so no-one else can make closed-source
derivates.

Copyright assignment creates a single point of failure against
closed-source derivates, weakening the copyleft.

I completely agree with Markus. We are hesitant to contribute our
leon2/3 port and drivers because we do not want to have closed-source
distributions (e.g. eCos Pro) using our code without contributing
back fixes or improvements.
eCosPro is certainly not closed source and most of the code is under the same GPL+ex license as eCos. Everyone who receives eCosPro receives the full source code. Sure, we provide additional functionality under a different source license with our eCosPro distributions, but there is nothing wrong in earning a buck from our work. Also, GPL+ex code always stays GPL+ex. There is no way we or anyone else can ship the code under any other license. Any contribution of yours would stay open source whatever - we and the community would welcome your contribution.

I'm also intrigued by your attitude regarding contributions. Do you also withhold contributions if the code could be used by some evil regime or for some purpose which you don't agree with? In fact every commercial company that uses eCos more than likely makes money from it because they don't have to pay license fees or royalties, and not many contribute anything back. That is one of the things about free open source - you don't have much control of how people use your contributions.

As for eCosCentric not contributing fixes or improvements, that is incorrect. Mixed in with the various bug fixes we contribute, you will also find enhancements such as PPP, SPI, I2C, flash v2, etc.


The ideal solution would be to license
the eCos code in LGPL. This would allow mixing proprietary applications
with the kernel, while force any improvements or bug fixes to be
published.
Neither the eCos GPL nor the LGPL force any code to be published. It requires that you make the sources available to any code recipient who requests it and even allows you to make a nominal charge to cover costs for providing the code. Some organisations just choose to publish the code to avoid dealing with such requests. To reiterate something said earlier, the LGPL requires object code redistribution which could be a limiting factor for some commercial middleware. GPL+x is IMO the best solution for commercial use of eCos.


Later Jiri Gaisler also wrote:


Markus Schaber wrote:

I have looked at the files in eCos Pro, and majority of it has
the GPL license with the linking exception. Is there anything that
would prevent me from merging updated files from eCos Pro back
to the open CVS version?

AFAICS, no, given that you legally received your copy of eCos Pro.

eCoscentric provides a free eCos Pro kit for the Nios processor, which anyone can download. This would mean that all GPL files in the kit are free to be merged with the open CVS. Or is there some other catch ...?
You cannot contribute something which you do not own, namely the copyright, irrespective of what license the code is distributed under (GPL, LGPL, GPL+ex).





Jiri.


-- Alex Schuilenburg

Managing Director/CEO                                eCosCentric Limited
Tel:  +44 1223 245571                     Barnwell House, Barnwell Drive
Fax:  +44 1223 248712                             Cambridge, CB5 8UU, UK
www.ecoscentric.com             Reg in England and Wales, Reg No 4422071

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