Requirements for doing a spin-off bsd branch?

[Matthew Seaman]

On Thu, Jul 17, 2003 at 01:02:24PM +0200, Sten Daniel Sørsdal wrote:
> 
> I am curious as to what is required (legally) to make a branch 
> of FreeBSD and call it somethingelseBSD?

You're completely free to do that.  So long as you preserve the
copyright on the original FreeBSD files, and the other hardly more
onerous duties laid on you by the terms of
http://www.freebsd.org/copyright/freebsd-license.html

Note however that various parts are licensed under other terms, such
as the GPL, which impose more stringent requirements.  There's nothing
however that prevents your branching the code to make your own
distribution.
 
> This would be non-commercial but is it possible to do a commercial
> version as well?

Even for commercial purposes.  Nokia's IPSO operating system which
they use in some of their network appliances is either a branch from
FreeBSD 2.x, or a derivative of NetBSD -- it's not clear to me which,
as various web and usenet articles make competing claims.
Unfortunately Nokia's own site http://www.nokia.com/cda1?id=162
doesn't see fit to acknowledge the provenance of the technology they
are using.  However, the point remains that whichever of the *BSD's
they started with, branching their own OS for commercial purposes is
perfectly legal and above board.

	Cheers,

	Matthew

-- 
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                       26 The Paddocks
                                                      Savill Way
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey         Marlow
Tel: +44 1628 476614                                  Bucks., SL7 1TH UK
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 187 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions/attachments/20030717/683e46cb/attachment.bin