FAQ: add "I want to use BusyBox as part of firmware" section

Signed-off-by: Denys Vlasenko <vda.linux@googlemail.com>

1 files changed, 64 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/FAQ.html b/FAQ.html
index 7795643..972e6c4 100644
--- a/FAQ.html
+++ b/FAQ.html
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ have additions to this FAQ document, we would love to add them,
 <li><a href="#demanding">I demand that you to add &lt;favorite feature&gt; right now!   How come you don't answer all my questions on the mailing list instantly?  I demand that you help me with all of my problems <em>Right Now</em>!</a></li>
 <li><a href="#helpme">I need help with BusyBox!  What should I do?</a></li>
 <li><a href="#contracts">I need you to add &lt;favorite feature&gt;!  Are the BusyBox developers willing to be paid in order to fix bugs or add in &lt;favorite feature&gt;?  Are you willing to provide support contracts?</a></li>
+<li><a href="#commercial_use">I want to use BusyBox as part of the Linux-based firmware for a new device. Will it create any license issues in future?</a></li>
 </ol>
 
 <h2>Troubleshooting</h2>
@@ -349,6 +350,69 @@ or not the result would do anything useful is an open question.</p></li>
 </p>
 
 <hr />
+<h2><a name="commercial_use">I want to use BusyBox as part of the Linux-based firmware for a new device. Will it create any license issues in future?</a></h2>
+
+<p>
+If you use busybox binary in your device's firmware, and if you
+(or the company you work for) is providing this device to others
+(selling, giving for free, etc), you have to provide users
+with means to build the same busybox binary from source.
+<p>
+For example, you may do it by placing the following, or similar,
+text somewhere on the company's web site:
+<p>
+<table border=1><tr><td>
+  This device's firmware includes the following open-source components:<br>
+  ...<br>
+  ...<br>
+  BusyBox:<br>
+  We are using patched version of busybox 1.6.2.<br>
+  In order to rebuild it from source, download<br>
+  http://company.site.com/firmware/source/busybox-1.6.2.tar.gz,<br>
+  unpack it to an empty directory,<br>
+  download<br>
+  http://company.site.com/firmware/source/busybox-1.6.2.patch<br>
+  and<br>
+  http://company.site.com/firmware/source/.config<br>
+  to the same directory and apply the patch with this command:<br>
+    patch -p1 &lt;busybox-1.6.2.patch<br>
+  Now you can build busybox with these commands:<br>
+    export ARCH=arm<br>
+    make CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-uclibc-<br>
+  After successful build, you will have busybox binary<br>
+  in this directory.<br>
+  If make command fails with the message<br>
+    "arm-linux-uclibc-gcc: command not found"<br>
+  you need to install suitable cross-compiler for ARM processor first.<br>
+  ARM cross-compilers are widely available both from commercial vendors<br>
+  and from open-source projects.<br>
+</td></tr></table>
+<p>
+Adjust the text to suit your actual situation.
+<p>
+You have to make the page easily accessible.
+In other words, users should not be forced to guess the URL.
+The most sensible choice is to put this text
+on the page where users normally download updated
+binary firmware images.
+<p>
+If you want to be extra nice, you may provide URLs to places
+where people may get ARM toolchains or read HOWTOs explaining
+how to build one. You may even provide the toolchain.
+You may explain how to download newly built busybox binary
+into the device. But these "extra nice" things are not required
+by license. License also does not require you to provide
+any support for users which use firmware (or part of it)
+built from source.
+<p>
+What license does require, though, is that busybox
+source which you provide actually can be built and that
+it will match busybox binary which is found in your binary firmware.
+Match is meant as "functional match", not byte-by-byte match -
+binaries may slightly differ because of different compilers/linkers used.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
 <h1>Troubleshooting</h1>
 
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