[Bluez-users] Question about licensing!

Patrick Laplante

author

2006-03-25 22:13 UTC #0 lore raw

Hi all,

I am currently working on a Linux based project that need Bluetooth support. I need to basically receive images from Bluetooth devices and print them.

The code printing the images is proprietary and can't be GPL'd.

Since bluez is GPL, I can't just link against it without being forced to make my code GPL which I can't, my customer won't allow me to release their IP to the public.

I was thinking of doing this:

A small daemon that uses the bluez library that would, on image reception from a device, push the image to another print daemon over a name pipe or socket. Does this break the GPL in any way? If I understand the license correctly, I would have to make my Bluetooth daemon GPL but my print daemon wouldn't have to be GPL.

Can you please confirm? Do you guys have any issue with that?

The last thing I want to do is upset anybody or put my customer in a position where he could be sued. Worst case, I'll have to buy a stack from a company like StoneStreet or implement a custom stack for my customer (which will bump the price by a lot :-)).

Regards,

Pat Laplante
Principal Engineer

Vanteon Corporation
2851 Clover Street
Pittsford, NY 14534-1711
Office: (585) 248-0510 x298
Fax: (585) 248-0537
www.vanteon.com <http://www.vanteon.com> - Embedded for Your Future

Alec Myers

2006-03-25 23:29 UTC #1 lore raw

Just to be quite clear: is your customer planning on selling the complete solution to the public? Or is it just an in-house project?

----- Original Message -----
From: "Patrick Laplante" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, March 25, 2006 10:13 PM
Subject: [Bluez-users] Question about licensing!

Hi all,

I am currently working on a Linux based project that need Bluetooth support. I need to basically receive images from Bluetooth devices and print them.

The code printing the images is proprietary and can't be GPL'd.

Since bluez is GPL, I can't just link against it without being forced to make my code GPL which I can't, my customer won't allow me to release their IP to the public.

I was thinking of doing this:

A small daemon that uses the bluez library that would, on image reception from a device, push the image to another print daemon over a name pipe or socket. Does this break the GPL in any way? If I understand the license correctly, I would have to make my Bluetooth daemon GPL but my print daemon wouldn't have to be GPL.

Can you please confirm? Do you guys have any issue with that?

The last thing I want to do is upset anybody or put my customer in a position where he could be sued. Worst case, I'll have to buy a stack from a company like StoneStreet or implement a custom stack for my customer (which will bump the price by a lot :-)).

Regards,

Pat Laplante
Principal Engineer

Vanteon Corporation
2851 Clover Street
Pittsford, NY 14534-1711
Office: (585) 248-0510 x298
Fax: (585) 248-0537
www.vanteon.com <http://www.vanteon.com> - Embedded for Your Future

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Patrick Laplante

author

2006-03-25 23:55 UTC #2 lore raw

My customer makes reference board. So they will sell that solution (firmware and board) to other customers that will then customize, rewrite, do whatever they want with it to then sell their product to the consumer market.

With that in mind, my customer is hiring me to write reference code demonstrating that the reference board does what it claims it can do. We could have a clause in there stating that the Bluetooth code is using bluez and is only there to demonstrate that the Bluetooth part is working. In that case, the end customer may or may not want GPL so they may engage with other such as StoneStreet (I know one customer who wants to use this board that is likely to do that) or they may like be fine with the GPL and simply use bluez.

I am new to the whole GPL/OSS thing; I've been buried under BSD stuff for years and just starting in the Linux world.

Regards,

Pat Laplante
Principal Engineer
Vanteon Corporation
2851 Clover Street
Pittsford, NY 14534-1711
Office: (585) 248-0510 x298
Fax: (585) 248-0537
www.vanteon.com - Embedded for Your Future

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Alec Myers
Sent: Saturday, March 25, 2006 6:30 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Bluez-users] Question about licensing!

Just to be quite clear: is your customer planning on selling the complete solution to the public? Or is it just an in-house project?

----- Original Message -----
From: "Patrick Laplante" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, March 25, 2006 10:13 PM
Subject: [Bluez-users] Question about licensing!

Hi all,

I am currently working on a Linux based project that need Bluetooth support. I need to basically receive images from Bluetooth devices and print them.

The code printing the images is proprietary and can't be GPL'd.

Since bluez is GPL, I can't just link against it without being forced to make my code GPL which I can't, my customer won't allow me to release their IP to the public.

I was thinking of doing this:

A small daemon that uses the bluez library that would, on image reception from a device, push the image to another print daemon over a name pipe or socket. Does this break the GPL in any way? If I understand the license correctly, I would have to make my Bluetooth daemon GPL but my print daemon wouldn't have to be GPL.

Can you please confirm? Do you guys have any issue with that?

The last thing I want to do is upset anybody or put my customer in a position where he could be sued. Worst case, I'll have to buy a stack from a company like StoneStreet or implement a custom stack for my customer (which will bump the price by a lot :-)).

Regards,

Pat Laplante
Principal Engineer

Vanteon Corporation
2851 Clover Street
Pittsford, NY 14534-1711
Office: (585) 248-0510 x298
Fax: (585) 248-0537
www.vanteon.com <http://www.vanteon.com> - Embedded for Your Future

-------------------------------------------------------
This SF.Net email is sponsored by xPML, a groundbreaking scripting language that extends applications into web and mobile media. Attend the live webcast and join the prime developer group breaking into this new coding territory!
http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=110944&bid=241720&dat=121642
_______________________________________________
Bluez-users mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bluez-users