On Sun, 15 Aug 1999, Dan Foster wrote:

> It's been a while since I've looked over the MkLinux license, admittedly,
> but I'd be concerned about such direct extraction/porting of the code
> because of underlying licensing issues. If done indirectly, such as someone
> summarizing how it works, and someone else writing the actual code based
> on that, then there'd be no issues to worry about I believe.

They pretty much ripped a standard BSD license.  It's Mach, which is a BSD
derivative.  They didn't have much choice, really.  Everything coded based
on Apple or OSF code is dually covered under those licenses, although it
may be triply covered under the MkLinux Public License (MPL).

Newer stuff, like the MGA driver, though, should be only covered under the
MPL.  Technically, the licensing terms are wrong in the tree, though I'll
email Mr. Oikawa before I change it in the source tree).  The MkLinux
public license is more restrictive than it will be in its final form, but
since I'm the only one who has released any code under it thus far, I have
no qualms about pounding on it some more.  :-)  Here's the first draft:



/*
 * Portions Copyright (c) 1999 The MkLinux Project.
 *              All Rights Reserved.
 *
 * Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and
 * its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted,
 * provided that the above copyright notice appears in all copies and
 * that both the copyright notice and this permission notice and
disclaimer
 * appear in all copies of the software, derivative works or modified
 * versions, and any portions thereof, and that these notices also
 * appear in supporting documentation, and provided that all advertising
 * materials mentioning features or use of this software displays the
 * following acknowledgement:
 *
 *      This product includes software developed by The MkLinux Project
 *      and its contributors.
 *
 * Neither the name of The MkLinux Project nor the names of its
 * contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived
 * from this software without specific prior written permission.
 *
 * The Original Code and all software distributed under the License are
 * distributed on an 'AS IS' basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER
 * EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AND THE MKLINUX PROJECT HEREBY DISCLAIMS ALL
 * SUCH WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTIES OF
 * MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT."
 *
 * IN NO EVENT SHALL THE MKLINUX PROJECT OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY
 * DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
DAMAGES
 * (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR
 * SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
HOWEVER
 * CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN ACTION OF CONTRACT,
 * STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING
IN
 * ANY WAY OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF
 * ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
 */


If it looks familiar, it's because I used NetBSD's license as a model,
along with the Apple and OSF BSD licenses.  Actually, I see a couple of
things I'm going to remove or severely change (the advertising materials
crap comes immediately to mind) before anybody else pollutes the MkLinux
source tree with this behemoth....  :-)


Later,
David