Porting Android to new CPU

[Isaac]

Hi All,

I'm porting Android to a new CPU, a Freescale based on ARM Cotex-A8.
This is a project for a MID. My question is related to licensing. I've
that for me to be able to install application from Google Android
Market my hardware must be compliant to Google's license. He told me
this couldn't refer me to any source of information and, after
searching on the Net I could not find any information about such
licensing requirement either.
Does anyone in the group know about hardware requirement that Google
might impose?

Being Android Open Source under Apache 2.0 and the kernel GPLv2, those
are the main guidelines I have in terms of license requirements.
I want to know if the users of my MID will be able to use Google
Android Market to download and install applications.

Cheers,
Itzhak

[lbcoder]

Availability of android market is between you and google -- it is not
to be assumed that just because you meet the software licensing
requirements that it is gospel that they will allow you to install
market. There is a specific agreement and set of conditions related to
branding that you must adhere to in order to get that.

Regarding licensing, this is mainly related to kernel GPLv2 licensing.
You need to ensure that if you are providing any hardware drivers,
that they MUST be themselves licensed under GPLv2 (since that is a
condition on the linux kernel), and you MUST provide source code for
those drivers upon request. It is NOT ACCEPTABLE for you to develop
hardware drivers and license them under anything EXCEPT GPLv2,
otherwise you are not in compliance with the kernel license, and as a
result, your drivers are illegal.

What you need to be extremely careful of is getting drivers from any
3rd party: in this event, you must comply with BOTH GPL *as well as*
the terms and conditions placed on those drivers by the 3rd party. If
the conditions are incompatible with GPL, then you can't use any part
of them.

[Isaac]

Hi,

Thanks. In case of the Linux kernel, the licensing is clear to me. The
area that I need to clarify is regarding new hardware and Google's
Android Market. I can't find any information on the Net. I want to
know what guidelines to follow to be compliant.

Cheers,
Itzhak

[lbcoder]

New hardware requires DRIVERS. DRIVERS go in the KERNEL. DRIVERS
therefore need to be GPLv2 to satisfy the KERNEL. That means that new
hardware requires GPLv2 licensing of all relevant software.

And regarding market.... AGAIN I REPEAT: THAT IS BETWEEN YOU AND
GOOGLE.

And FYI: This is NOT the group to be asking about things like android
market.