Re: [Freedos-kernel] Packing kernel with aPack saves 1.3 KB

[Patrick J. L. <pa...@us...>]

Luchezar Georgiev <lu...@ga...> writes:

> I don't know really. If anyone is competent on licensing issues
> (albeit not a lawyer) fell free to comment.

I am not a lawyer, but I think I understand this stuff reasonably
well.  I do not believe there is any incompatibility with the GPL.

The GPL requires that if you distribute binaries, you must also
distribute the corresponding source code.  The GPL puts no further
restrictions on how those binaries themselves are distributed or
licensed.  For example, Red Hat Linux Enterprise Edition has a
restrictive license on its binaries (you have to buy one copy per
machine).  But the source code is still available because the GPL
requires it.

Of course, I think it is a bad idea to distribute FreeDOS binaries
with a restrictive license; it forces commercial users to find a
different binary distribution or compile their own.  But as long as
those users have that option, there is no problem with the GPL.

Note that if you do distribute binaries packed with aPack, you must
make sure the user is aware of their restricted license before they
download.  You cannot expect the user to track down every license for
every component you just happen to make available for free.  (By
analogy, I cannot put MS Windows up for download and just say "the end
user is breaking the law, not me".)

By the way, I cannot find a LICENSE file in emm386.zip.  The closest
thing I see are comments in the source which read: "If you would like
to use parts of this driver in one of your projects, please check up
with me first" and "Copyright (c) 1995, Till Gerken".  Asking people
to "check up" before using the source is DEFINITELY not compatible
with the GPL...

 - Pat