Subject: Re: Licensing Terms
From: [email-masked] (DJ Delorie)

7 Nov 1998 02:06:17 -0800
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
References: <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Cc: [email-masked]

> Does that also apply to software built with EGCS-1.1-MinGW32 ???

Cygwin's license applies only to Cygwin and things built with Cygwin;
it cannot apply to anything else independent of it.  You have to read
the licensing terms for Mingw to find out its terms, which seem to be:

 "The source code and header files that make up Mingw32 (located in the
  src and include directories of the archive which contained this file)
  are in the PUBLIC DOMAIN."

This means you don't have to do anything special for MingW.  As for
EGCS, it has long been known that compiling a program with gcc or egcs
does not affect the copyright status of the program itself.  Only if
you use egcs's source code as part of your program would the GNU GPL
apply.

Note that MingW uses Microsoft's runtime DLLs; you may want to check
into their license to see if there are any additional restrictions.
These DLLs aren't linked into your program, but if you want to include
these DLLs in your distribution (you shouldn't have to) you might have
a problem.

> If so, WHAT do I have to buy, and what share does Mumit Khan get of that
> money (he made the MinGW324EGCS package, after all)?

Apparently, nothing (for both questions).  You are encouraged to send
donations to people you feel deserve it, but I think that's always
been the case anyway :-)

> Can I SELL the software built with either Cygwin or EGCS if I
> include the source code?

Building with EGCS doesn't matter; that doesn't affect what you can do
with your own programs.  It's only linking with things that affects
your programs.

So, for "built with Cygwin", yes, you can sell your software for as
much as you want, as long as the source code is included and you obey
the terms of the license.  You can't, however, charge a fee (other
than reasonable copying fees) for just the sources, once the user has
the binaries.  You can charge as much as you want for just the sources
if you don't ship binaries; the GNU GPL doesn't stop that.  The GNU
GPL only forces you to "give" the sources *if* the user already has
the binaries.

The GNU GPL also means that once you sell it to one person, you can't
stop them from giving it away to others, as long as they obey the GNU
GPL as well.
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