OPENCORES.ORG

You are completly right. At first sigh, because it's what happen in

Right, if someone wanted to build this core into say an MP3Player and
sell a million of them, there is nothing to stop them from that. I
guess GPL/LGPL rely on karma in hopes that some of the profit from
sales goes back to the owner/inventor to help further those
organizations developments.

And you right, there is no good way to say, students/individuals can
use software for free, but people who profit from it must pay for it.
So my conclusion on that is to just make it 'free software' and hope
for the best. 

At the very least, we all can benefit from advances in free software.

Regards,

----- Original Message ----- 
From: nico at seul.org<nico@s...> 
To: 
Date: Thu Nov 17 13:34:40 CET 2005 
Subject: [oc] GNU GPL or Lesser questions 

> You are completly right. At first sigh, because it's what happen in 
> the 
> software world. 
> GPL force "derivative form of work" to be release under 
> GPL. That means 
> that if you build a programm that is based under mysql, it must be 
> GPL. 
> BUT if you use something "beside" it, it's ok. 
> It's what's happen with closed source Nvidia code inside the Linux 
> kernel. 
> The driver was first maid for windows not targeting only linux, as 
> for the 
> code of one old fiel system. That's a very specific case. 
> A more annoying things, is that you mix copyright/source/GPL with 
> real 
> things that are not inside the copyright law. So i don't realy know 
> the 
> obligation towards the source code when you have the object in your 
> hand. 
> In the SW world, if you have a GPL binarie, your provider must 
> provide you 
> the source code as said by the GPL. But GPL is a licence on 
> copyrighted 
> material which not apply to goods. So i don't know what could 
> happen. 
> > Someone *please* correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the 
> general 
> > difference is: 
> > 
> > If your cores were LGPL, anyone could use it in whatever 
> design they 
> > wanted, but if they changed any of the cores you released in 
> the 
> > process, they would have to release their changes. 
> > 
> > If your cores were GPL, and someone used them in a design, 
> their 
> > entire design would have be released under the GPL. 
> > 
> > At least, that's my understanding (or misunderstanding). 
> > Mike 
> > 
> > On 11/16/05, Nicolas Boulay <nico at seul.org> wrote: 
> >> If you maid a difference between student and XYZ Corp in 
> your licence, 
> >> you 
> >> don't do 'free software' anymore. 
> >> 
> >> You could use GPL or LGPL to force user to publish there 
> modification 
> >> to your 
> >> core. If you own all the copyright, you could also sell 
> "closed" version 
> >> of 
> >> your code, like Trolltech do for Qt and MySQL Labs with 
> Mysql. 
> >> 
> >> Nicolas Boulay 
> >> 
> >> Le mercredi 16 Novembre 2005 19:40, dsp at 
> mail2.qortek.com a écrit : 
> >> > I've read over both GPL and GNU Lesser licenses, and 
> have one concern. 
> >> > Hopefully someone here has experience or can offer an 
> explanation. 
> >> > 
> >> > My concern is this: 
> >> > I've written/am writing core modules for my TI Dev 
> board project, and 
> >> > want to release these cores as 'free software' to 
> individuals, 
> >> > however, would like those that would use this set of 
> cores in a 
> >> > profitable way to contribute back to QorTek in one 
> form or another. 
> >> > 
> >> > I have no problem with students/individuals using 
> these cores for 
> >> > school/personal projects, in fact I encourage them to 
> do so. But if 
> >> > XYZ Corp wants to use the cores in verbatim/modified 
> form and sell 
> >> > that software based on these cores, is there a way to 
> impose fees on 
> >> > them? Is there another license that covers this? 
> >> > 
> >> > I dont want to start any flame wars, I'm just new to 
> GNU GPL/Lesser 
> >> > and general software licenses. 
> >> > 
> >> > Thanks in advance. 
> >> > Brian 
> >> > _______________________________________________ 
> >> > http://www.opencores.org/mailman/listinfo/cores 
> >> _______________________________________________ 
> >> http://www.opencores.org/mailman/listinfo/cores 
> >> 
> > _______________________________________________ 
> > http://www.opencores.org/mailman/listinfo/cores 
> > 
> 
> 