Re: JTAG debug support for ARM

[Fernando Nasser <fnasser at cygnus dot com>]

Peter Reilley wrote:
> 
> The site is a work in progress, not everything is there.
> I perhaps should have waited before announcing it
> publicly, but some people asked about it.   The
> source is available.   Email me and I will send it
> to you, but it is changing daily.   It will be on the
> site.
>

Peter,

I am not the Copyright holder.  It is the Free Software Foundation.
They have "given" it to the world, but under the GPL, what means that 
legally it is "owned" by the FSF.

As I said, they distribute it under a license and we are free to use and
redistribute it under this license.  Violating this license in any of its
clauses is as illegal as making illegal copies of a Microsoft product.

As I was told, the first problem that befalls on someone who distributes
GPL software and does not comply with the GPL terms is that this person or
institution has the rights to redistributed it revoked for life (at the
FSF discretion, of course).

If you distribute the software by opto-magnetic means you have the option 
of making the source available by mail, charging a reasonable fee to cover the
media, processing and mailing.  But if you make it available for downloading
you *must* make the sources available from the same site and anyone must be
able to reproduce the binary you are distributing.

With regards to the DLL issue, the GPL makes clear exemption to the Operating
System and standard programing environment libraries that are distributed
with an Operating System.  It allows for nothing that are distributed 
separately or under a fee.  As any Lawyer will explain to you, if it is not
clear that you can do it, DON'T!

I understand that you have helped set up this site and that you made it 
available with the best intentions in mind: helping people who wants to
use this product (that I hear is quite nice) and the GNU tools.  This is
very commendable but you must first convince the Copyright holder and get
an exemption from them or comply with the existing terms.

You should inform whoever is responsible from that Web site of the terms and
conditions of the GPL and the legal consequences that can result of violating
a software license in the United States of America.




 
> Pete.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Fernando Nasser <fnasser@redhat.com>
> To: Christopher Faylor <cgf@redhat.com>
> Cc: gdb@sources.redhat.com <gdb@sources.redhat.com>
> Date: Thursday, January 25, 2001 4:23 PM
> Subject: Re: JTAG debug support for ARM
> 
> >Christopher Faylor wrote:
> >>
> >> On Wed, Jan 24, 2001 at 10:01:23PM -0500, Peter Reilley wrote:
> >> >There is nothing illegal about this site.  I have done most of the
> >> >Linux and Solaris code on this site.  If you doubt this, ask them at
> >> >their regular site www.macraigor.com The Wiggler is not supported under
> >> >Linux and Solaris.  The Wiggler is supported under Windows.  Under
> >> >Linux and Solaris the Raven and Ethernet products are supported.  The
> >> >site is still a work in progress so everything is not there yet but
> >> >keep checking.
> >>
> >> Unfortunately, the question of legality is open to interpretation if the
> >> sources for the DLL are not provided and if the DLL is used with GDB.
> >>
> >
> >Furthermore, the GPL has explicit rules for Web sites: if the binary is
> >available for downloading from a site, the same site must provide the
> >sources that are necessary and sufficient to regenerate those binaries.
> >
> >Providing a link to another site where there are some sources is not
> >enough.
> >And in this case the sources pointed to are not sufficient to regenerate
> >the
> >binary nor equivalent to what was used as there are certainly changes to
> >the
> >gdb code.
> >
> >
> >--
> >Fernando Nasser
> >Red Hat Canada Ltd.                     E-Mail:  fnasser@redhat.com
> >2323 Yonge Street, Suite #300
> >Toronto, Ontario   M4P 2C9
> >

-- 
Fernando Nasser
Red Hat - Toronto                       E-Mail:  fnasser@redhat.com
2323 Yonge Street, Suite #300
Toronto, Ontario   M4P 2C9