Re: Which parts do we need to open source if we use Debian on our robotics products

[Yadd <yadd@debian.org>]

On 21/09/2022 06:15, pzk@mail.ustc.edu.cn wrote:
> Hi Debian-legal，
>
> Hope this email find you well.
>
> This is zhikang Pan, our company wants to use Debian on our robot 
> product, which will be sold. So do we need open source for the kernel, 
> Robot Operating System framework, and applications on this robot 
> product? We actually don't want open source core code because there 
> might be commercial benefits involved.
>
> Thanks and best regards,
>
> Zhikang Pan

Hi,

you can, all packages included in Debian "main" are compliant with
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian_Free_Software_Guidelines which 
doesn't forbid to use Debian packages into a robot.

If you use packages from "non-free" branch, you have to read each 
/usr/share/doc/<non-free-package>/copyright to see if you can use it.

Cheers,
Yadd