[hpsdr] Naive question

[Bill Tracey]

At the moment the code I've got talks to a Janus prototype via a 
Xylo  which is the FPGA/USB interface board we're using to stand in for Ozy 
at the moment.  Once Ozy shows up the Xylo specific parts of the code will 
be replaced with Ozy specific code.

Your question on could you use the code in a non GPL program is an 
interesting one and one I'd not thought of  deeply as yet.  As the code 
currently stands it's integrated into PowerSDR and hence is licensed under 
the GPL.   My reading of the GPL says that you could not take that code and 
use it in a non GPL program -- which is probably not the answer that we (or 
at least some of us) are looking for.

I do not think my code would be considered a derivative work of PowerSDR so 
I am probably free to license it in whatever manner I'd like.   I believe 
licensing it under the LGPL would allow non GPL programs to use it, but 
have to think a bit on whether or not licensing under the LGPL  would 
really be a good thing.    To some degree I have competing goals here -- 
I'd like to see Janus and Ozy used with a wide variety of programs in the 
amateur radio community so I should make it easy for such programs to use 
it, whether they be GPL Free, free as in beer,  or commercial.    However, 
I'd also like to see more GPL Free amateur radio programs so I'd prefer not 
open a loophole by using the LGPL  In this case of code to get data off the 
Ozy/Janus I suspect the LGPL is probably the right license to use.

Would be interested in hearing other's thoughts on the issue.  Clearly 
he/she who writes/creates things can license those things under whatever 
terms they want (assuming they are not GPL derived), but would be 
interested to hear from folks as to what they think the preferred licensing 
for HPSDR artifacts should be.  Would also be interested to hear why people 
do not want to license their code under the GPL

Regards,

Bill (kd5tfd)

At 04:16 PM 5/20/2006, Alberto I2PHD wrote:
>***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>
>Cecil, Phil and Bill,
>
>     thanks for the clarifications. Good to know that there already is (or 
> there will shortly be) C code to "talk" to the
>Janus board (through Ozy, I guess). Could it be borrowed for my program, 
>even if my program is not GPLed ? TNX.
>
>73  Alberto  I2PHD



 1148164603.0