Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S266011AbUA2C4J (ORCPT ); Wed, 28 Jan 2004 21:56:09 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S266070AbUA2C4J (ORCPT ); Wed, 28 Jan 2004 21:56:09 -0500 Received: from h80ad25b0.async.vt.edu ([128.173.37.176]:26752 "EHLO turing-police.cc.vt.edu") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S266011AbUA2C4F (ORCPT ); Wed, 28 Jan 2004 21:56:05 -0500 Message-Id: <200401290255.i0T2txQq013612@turing-police.cc.vt.edu> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.6.3 04/04/2003 with nmh-1.0.4+dev To: =?koi8-r?Q?=22?=Bansh=?koi8-r?Q?=22=20?= Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: GPL license and linux kernel modifications In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 27 Jan 2004 19:25:55 +0300." From: Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; boundary="==_Exmh_-965886751P"; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 21:55:59 -0500 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1883 Lines: 46 --==_Exmh_-965886751P Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii On Tue, 27 Jan 2004 19:25:55 +0300, =?koi8-r?Q?=22?=Bansh=?koi8-r?Q?=22=20?= said: > It looks like one can make a preprocessor or even one's own compiler (with > one's syntax) which will be used for kernel building. But it's not required to > distribute this compiler. So I can distribute linux kernel source code modified > this way but no one will be able to build it. Is it ok? Sure. If you wrote the code in APL, it would be quite unreadable, and you could distribute it. See Bliss/32 (DEC) or PL/S (IBM) for examples of languages that were used to write systems and the code distributed without a compiler. (Note that I know of no source code in Bliss/32 or PL/S that was actually distributed under the GPL). > Such compiler/preprocessor can be really very tricky and can hide the > modifications very much, thus allowing to hide proprietary know-how. Yes, but it has to be the *preferred* source form. So you have to distribute what you're actually using to maintain the system. You want to claim that the very tricky code is your preferred form, go right ahead. Let me know how the first time you try to fix a bug goes. ;) It is most certainly *NOT* allowed to pass your code through a obfuscator before shipping it out. --==_Exmh_-965886751P Content-Type: application/pgp-signature -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.3 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Exmh version 2.5 07/13/2001 iD8DBQFAGHY/cC3lWbTT17ARAtAEAJ0ajIgYJgAPJsrWqZwDf+/dJRTEMwCgz3v3 huO5kow+UMeI83mmRgfLsgw= =uC1Q -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --==_Exmh_-965886751P-- - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/