[ECOS] License restrictions

[Wilson Kwan]

Another question on this topic....

What if someone were to emulate a library or device API of a GPLd piece of
code but did not use any of the GPL code? Is it legal to write *from
scratch* a new driver to emulate the interface for interoperability, this of
course would involve looking at the header files at a minimum?

Thanks,
Wilson


> Robert Ritchey wrote:
> >
> > How do the licenses for Linux and eCos intertwine, if at all.  If I
wanted
> > to use a
> > driver in Linux as a starting point for an eCos driver is there a
problem
> > with that?
> > What restrictions do I need to be aware of?  Thanks.
>
> If you own the copyright you can change the licence is you see fit.
However
> if you use code from someone else (i.e. with their copyright), then you
> have to follow the terms of the licence, be it GPL or RHEPL.
>
> So if *you* write it, you can use it in either. But if it contains anybody
> elses code, it will be incompatible with the other unless the "anybody
> else" explicitly allows for it (e.g. if they put their code in the public
> domain (in the legal sense)).
>
> Jifl
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