This is merely a historical archive of years 2008-2021, before the migration to mailman3.
A maintained and still updated list archive can be found at https://lists.osmocom.org/hyperkitty/list/osmocom-sdr@lists.osmocom.org/.
Peter Stuge peter at stuge.seHej Leif! Leif Asbrink wrote: > This means you are free to use the rtlsdr dll available > at osmocom but you can not distribute an executable in > which the library is linked in. I'm afraid it's not so simple. > Likewise can I distribute Linrad under Linux and give > the user the instructions how to link in librtl.so > from the osmocom site or from a complete and somewhat > modified version that I will supply myself in case > the modifications to the library I will propose will not > be accepted. You can do that, but Linrad will also be GPL. Your software (both source and binaries) undisputably constitutes a derivative work of rtl-sdr, because it calls rtl-sdr. A consequence is that your software is not really in the public domain, as long as it calls rtl-sdr. Also keep in mind that the concept of public domain is problematic across international copyright law. All nations do not allow an author to abstain their copyright; I believe that's the case here in Europe for example. For maximum freedom I like to use the MIT license: http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT I understand the only requirement to be that copyright notices and the license itself are also copied, when copying the source code. > The e4k tuner works very well, actually it is > very competitive when compared to the FUNcube Pro dongle, > but only with a modified library. > http://www.sm5bsz.com/linuxdsp/hware/funcube/funcube.htm I urge you to work with the rtl-sdr maintainers to find how your improvements can be reworked so that they are included in rtl-sdr. It is a waste of everyone's time that you keep some local changes. > PS. The reason I worry about the GNU license is that > Linrad is free software. Free for anyone to use for > any purpose. I do not want to discourage people from > using my sdr algorithms in commercial products. For that > reason I claim no copyright and do not include a GNU > license. DS. I hope it is clear that the way you currently do this doesn't work, or that it at the very least is more problematic than it needs to be. Any software which calls rtl-sdr automatically becomes GPL. It is of course easy to accomplish what you want. Just like those who wish to distribute their software with a less free license than GPL you must create an abstraction in Linrad where the only calls to rtl-sdr occur in a process which is separate from Linrad. The source code of that (small) program will always be GPL. Linrad which communicates with that (small) program can use another license. One easy solution is to just use the rtl-sdr TCP protocol, but you may have some reason to create a different abstraction. With an abstraction over TCP you have isolated your software from rtl-sdr. Like authors of closed software you are circumventing the intent of the rtl-sdr authors, but that is of course your prerogative. To make your software unproblematic for others to use I urge you to choose a permissive license that you like, in the list of popular approved open source licenses. Here's the list: http://opensource.org/licenses/category MIT is IMO the shortest and simplest of them. That's why I like it a lot for maximum freedom software. //Peter