viral license free fork of freebsd

[David Schwartz]

> I am intrested in putting together a version of FreeBSD (at least the
> non-ports portion) that is 100% viral license (gpl and lgpl [not
> techinically viral but I don't trust it]) free... where would be a
> good starting point on this project?

The short answer is that you simply cannot do this. You cannot set the
licensing terms on code you did not write without a written relicensing
agreement from the original author, which you don't have. This is the law in
the United States and it's probably impossible for this or other reasons
elsewhere.

If you merely distribute FreeBSD, you obtain *your* license to distribute
from the BSD license. However, you have no role whatsoever in the license
the recipients you distribute to get from the original authors (other than
making them lawful possessors of the code). And they don't need any license
to simply own the code or to use it. If they wish to modify it or distribute
it themselves, then they obtain whatever license each original author offers
from that author directly. You are not a *licensing* intermediary.

You can certainly make modifications and contributions of your own and offer
them under any license you would like. But you cannot change the fact that
the original authors of all the pieces you are taking has offered them to
anyone who possesses them under a BSD license. Recipients still get those
BSD licenses and the BSD license prohibits you from removing the
notification that they do. (Though you can certainly add your own
notification that some parts are not offered under the BSD license.)

I'd prefer not to pollute even the chat list with this, so if there's
anything you don't understand or that isn't clear, feel free to email me
personally first. If you still think I'm wrong after you hear my response,
then post to the list. There's just too much misinformation out there
already and this has been patiently explained dozens of times.

DS