OT: GPL, Was: [Xen-users] Domain context switch time

[Wayde Nie <xen@xxxxxx>]

Quoting Randy Thelen <rthelen@xxxxxxxxxx>:
> Because
> Xen is open source, it is certainly the case that you or someone
> could add such support into the Xen source code.  And, because of the
> GPL you (or they) would be required to make their source available
> (i.e., it's illegal to benefit privately) even if the modification
> were not accepted into the Xen source tree.

OT, but this isn't true...

There is no requirement to distribute your changes to GPL'd software to
anyone... However, If you choose to distribute a derived work, you must include
(or make available) the new source to the people you distribute the derived
work to, under the GPL.

You can even charge for the changes and agree to only distribute your changes to
certain clients (ie. contract consultant), but the people who you sold the
changes to would be entitled to the source for those changes and be as free to
redistribute (or not) as you were.

See:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#TOCGPLRequireSourcePostedPublic

Of course, generally the benefit of OSS is that changes tend to be recontributed
back into the public project... This is encouraged by the GPL in the sense that
anyone who receives a generally useful change is free to redistribute it back
to the public no matter how they received it (for fee/for free).

--
Wayde.


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