[LinuxBIOS] Can we provide BIOS service base on the Linux BIOS

[Stefan Reinauer]

* Tsai Jonson <jonsontauoyuan at yahoo.com.tw> [070728 17:38]:
> Dear Sir or Madam,
>     We are a small software company in Taiwan. As you may know we have many PC
> manufacturer and SoC Design comapny here. May we provide them the BIOS binary
> code base on the Linux BIOS?

Yes, you can provide binary images, as long as you also provide the full
source code including your changes.

>     Surely we modify some code to fit our need of the SoC we had. Is there any
> legal issue we need to take care?

The easiest way for you is to send your changes to the source code to
this mailing list so we can include it in the official LinuxBIOS tree.
This way you will not have additional maintenance duties for supplying
the source code.

>     Note: We spent 6 months to learn and boot up the Linux BIOS on our
> platform. Should we open our source code? 

Yes. You have to. If you do not, you make yourself subject to legal
prosecution.

> And how can we protect our
> intellecture property if we need to open our source?

The same way we all do: We offer it to the public. When you started
using LinuxBIOS we did 90% of the job for you. Now it is your duty to
give your 10% back. This is a great deal for you as well as for the rest
of the LinuxBIOS community.

>     Very appreciate your kindly attention! Many thanks and looking forward to
> your advice!
 
You are most welcome.
 Stefan


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