Redistribution of FreeBSD 5.3

[Bryan Smith]

Hi,

My name is Bryan and I am wondering if I can freely distribute FreeBSD 5.3. If I can redistribute it, is there anything I need to include with the ISO images when I distribute them? I read that I need to include the copyright notice. Do I need to include a seperate document for this copyright notice (text file or html document) or is the copyright notice in one of the ISO images (also, is the copyright notice that I would need to add the one found at [url]http://www.freebsd.org/copyright/freebsd-license.html)?[/url] I know these might be pretty stupid questions, but its better to be safe than sorry in my opinion. Also, is there a limit on the amount I can redistribute?

Thanks,
Bryan

[Mike Jeays]

On Wed, 2005-02-23 at 21:38, Bryan Smith wrote:

> Hi,
>
> My name is Bryan and I am wondering if I can freely distribute FreeBSD 5.3. If I can redistribute it, is there anything I need to include with the ISO images when I distribute them? I read that I need to include the copyright notice. Do I need to include a seperate document for this copyright notice (text file or html document) or is the copyright notice in one of the ISO images (also, is the copyright notice that I would need to add the one found at [url]http://www.freebsd.org/copyright/freebsd-license.html)?[/url] I know these might be pretty stupid questions, but its better to be safe than sorry in my opinion. Also, is there a limit on the amount I can redistribute?
>
> Thanks,
> Bryan
> _______________________________________________
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>

I am NOT a FreeBSD official, so please wait and see if anyone
contradicts what I say.

To the best of my knowledge you are free to redistribute the FreeBSD ISO
images. They contain the copyright notices (many times), and you don't
need at add anything. Obviously you shouldn't try and claim that you are
the author! There is no limit on the number of copies you can
distribute - after all, these images are available on many public FTP
servers.

The additional CDs that you get with a boxed set are NOT for
redistribution, although everything on them is available on the FTP
sites - just not as an ISO image.

Welcome to FreeBSD - try and spread it around Queen's as much as you
can!

[stheg olloydson]

it was said"

>Hi,
>
>My name is Bryan and I am wondering if I can freely distribute FreeBSD
>5.3. If I can redistribute it, is there anything I need to include

with >the ISO images when I distribute them? I read that I need to
include >the copyright notice. Do I need to include a seperate document
for this >copyright notice (text file or html document) or is the
copyright >notice in one of the ISO images (also, is the copyright
notice that I >would need to add the one found at

>[url]http://www.freebsd.org/copyright/freebsd-license.html)?[/url] I know these
>might be pretty stupid questions, but its better to be safe than sorry
>in my opinion. Also, is there a limit on the amount I can

redistribute?

>
>Thanks,
>Bryan

Hello,

If you're redistributing discs made from ISOs that you downloaded, you
don't need to do a thing. All the info will be be there automatically.
I'm cc'ing this to advocacy for correction in case things have changed
since last I checked (sometime in the last millenium).

Regards,

Stheg



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[Chuck Swiger]

Bryan Smith wrote:
[ ...format recovered, please set linewrap preference... ]

> My name is Bryan and I am wondering if I can freely distribute FreeBSD 5.3.

Yes.

> If I can redistribute it, is there anything I need to include with the ISO
> images when I distribute them?

No. You can redistribute byte-for-byte identical copies of the ISO images
from the ftp.freebsd.org servers if you'd like.

> I read that I need to include the copyright notice.

That's right. Very probably you will need to include both the BSD /COPYRIGHT
file and the GPL /usr/src/gnu/COPYING file somewhere. [1] Of course, the ISO
images come with the files containing the copyright and license text.

> Do I need to include a seperate document for this copyright notice
> (text file or html document) or is the copyright notice in one of the ISO
> images (also, is the copyright notice that I would need to add the one found
> at [url]http://www.freebsd.org/copyright/freebsd-license.html)?[/url]

The ones that come with the ISO images are fine as far as BSD-licensed and
GPL'ed ("GPL-licensed?" :-) software are concerned. Depending on the version
of FreeBSD and if you include any ports, you ought to consider:

[url]http://www.freebsd.org/copyright/index.html[/url]
[url]http://www.freebsd.org/copyright/LEGAL[/url]

Note that if you modify parts of FreeBSD, especially GPLed parts, you will
likely be obligated to make those changes available under the terms of 3b:

" b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
customarily used for software interchange; or,"

....unless your changes are included in source form already.

> Also, is there a limit on the amount I can redistribute?

No.

--
-Chuck

[1]: Or several somewheres, unfortunately:

11-sec% locate COPYING | wc -l
77

I wonder if anyone has arranged for them to be hardlinks to each other? :-)