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We want to use SPDX short identifier for license string as much as possible. So refer to SPDX license list and use SPDX short identifier for license strings in documentation. Also remove License abbreviations that we have. Signed-off-by: Rahul Bedarkar <rahulbedarkar89@gmail.com> [Thomas: take into account suggestions from Arnout.] Acked-by: Arnout Vandecappelle (Essensium/Mind) <arnout@mind.be> Signed-off-by: Thomas Petazzoni <thomas.petazzoni@free-electrons.com>
124 lines
6.0 KiB
Plaintext
124 lines
6.0 KiB
Plaintext
// -*- mode:doc; -*-
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// vim: set syntax=asciidoc:
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[[legal-info]]
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== Legal notice and licensing
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=== Complying with open source licenses
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All of the end products of Buildroot (toolchain, root filesystem, kernel,
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bootloaders) contain open source software, released under various licenses.
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Using open source software gives you the freedom to build rich embedded
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systems, choosing from a wide range of packages, but also imposes some
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obligations that you must know and honour.
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Some licenses require you to publish the license text in the documentation of
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your product. Others require you to redistribute the source code of the
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software to those that receive your product.
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The exact requirements of each license are documented in each package, and
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it is your responsibility (or that of your legal office) to comply with those
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requirements.
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To make this easier for you, Buildroot can collect for you some material you
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will probably need. To produce this material, after you have configured
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Buildroot with +make menuconfig+, +make xconfig+ or +make gconfig+, run:
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--------------------
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make legal-info
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--------------------
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Buildroot will collect legally-relevant material in your output directory,
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under the +legal-info/+ subdirectory.
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There you will find:
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* A +README+ file, that summarizes the produced material and contains warnings
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about material that Buildroot could not produce.
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* +buildroot.config+: this is the Buildroot configuration file that is usually
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produced with +make menuconfig+, and which is necessary to reproduce the
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build.
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* The source code for all packages; this is saved in the +sources/+ and
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+host-sources/+ subdirectories for target and host packages respectively.
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The source code for packages that set +<PKG>_REDISTRIBUTE = NO+ will not be
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saved.
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Patches that were applied are also saved, along with a file named +series+
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that lists the patches in the order they were applied. Patches are under the
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same license as the files that they modify.
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Note: Buildroot applies additional patches to Libtool scripts of
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autotools-based packages. These patches can be found under
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+support/libtool+ in the Buildroot source and, due to technical
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limitations, are not saved with the package sources. You may need to
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collect them manually.
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* A manifest file (one for host and one for target packages) listing the
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configured packages, their version, license and related information.
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Some of this information might not be defined in Buildroot; such items are
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marked as "unknown".
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* The license texts of all packages, in the +licenses/+ and +host-licenses/+
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subdirectories for target and host packages respectively.
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If the license file(s) are not defined in Buildroot, the file is not produced
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and a warning in the +README+ indicates this.
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Please note that the aim of the +legal-info+ feature of Buildroot is to
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produce all the material that is somehow relevant for legal compliance with the
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package licenses. Buildroot does not try to produce the exact material that
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you must somehow make public. Certainly, more material is produced than is
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needed for a strict legal compliance. For example, it produces the source code
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for packages released under BSD-like licenses, that you are not required to
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redistribute in source form.
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Moreover, due to technical limitations, Buildroot does not produce some
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material that you will or may need, such as the toolchain source code and the
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Buildroot source code itself (including patches to packages for which source
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distribution is required).
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When you run +make legal-info+, Buildroot produces warnings in the +README+
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file to inform you of relevant material that could not be saved.
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Finally, keep in mind that the output of +make legal-info+ is based on
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declarative statements in each of the packages recipes. The Buildroot
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developers try to do their best to keep those declarative statements as
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accurate as possible, to the best of their knowledge. However, it is very
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well possible that those declarative statements are not all fully accurate
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nor exhaustive. You (or your legal department) _have_ to check the output
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of +make legal-info+ before using it as your own compliance delivery. See
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the _NO WARRANTY_ clauses (clauses 11 and 12) in the +COPYING+ file at the
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root of the Buildroot distribution.
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[[legal-info-buildroot]]
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=== Complying with the Buildroot license
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Buildroot itself is an open source software, released under the
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http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html[GNU General
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Public License, version 2] or (at your option) any later version, with
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the exception of the package patches detailed below.
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However, being a build system, it is not normally part of the end product:
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if you develop the root filesystem, kernel, bootloader or toolchain for a
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device, the code of Buildroot is only present on the development machine, not
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in the device storage.
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Nevertheless, the general view of the Buildroot developers is that you should
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release the Buildroot source code along with the source code of other packages
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when releasing a product that contains GPL-licensed software.
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This is because the
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http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html[GNU GPL]
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defines the "'complete source code'" for an executable work as "'all the
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source code for all modules it contains, plus any associated interface
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definition files, plus the scripts used to control compilation and installation
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of the executable'".
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Buildroot is part of the 'scripts used to control compilation and
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installation of the executable', and as such it is considered part of the
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material that must be redistributed.
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Keep in mind that this is only the Buildroot developers' opinion, and you
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should consult your legal department or lawyer in case of any doubt.
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==== Patches to packages
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Buildroot also bundles patch files, which are applied to the sources
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of the various packages. Those patches are not covered by the license
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of Buildroot. Instead, they are covered by the license of the software
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to which the patches are applied. When said software is available
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under multiple licenses, the Buildroot patches are only provided under
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the publicly accessible licenses.
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See xref:patch-policy[] for the technical details.
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