FreeBSD and Linux

[Marcus G. Daniels]

>>>>> "MC" == Martin Cracauer <cracauer@wavehh.hanse.de> writes:

MC> but it is for importing BSD sources, which
MC> state you have to name the author and makes it incompatible with
MC> the GPL. 

This isn't right.  For example, the GNU C Library includes the
Berkeley database library, and it simply complies with the license by
including the Berkeley copyright notice; another constraint is added,
and that constraint happens to be compatible.

What I suspect you are thinking of is FSF policy.  In the case of code
that doesn't come with a clear license, the Free Software Foundation
requires a copyright assignment or disclaimer.  The reason is that
they don't want 1) to be in the situation where someone comes along
and says, "Hey, that's my code, stop distributing it", and 2) they
want to be able to sue those that would violate the General Public
License.