Porting OpenGL to a hobbyist platform

OpenGL OpenGL: Basic Coding
1

http://www.sgi.com/products/software/opengl/faq.html#4

According to that link, if I’m developing a hobby OS, and I wish to port OpenGL to it, I need a sort of license. How true is that?

Also, it states that porting to a closed source project requires a (even worse) paid license.

The OS project I’m doing is closed source, yes, but when it comes out it will be completely free. Nothing will require payment. I just prefer not to open source my hard work. I believe in the goodness of Free Stuff ™, but not necessarily in open source, which is pretty much opening yourself up to forks and all kind of Bad Things ™.

If I, say, were to port OpenGL as a native library to my OS, and distribute the library with my OS, would I need to pay the ARB, or whoever it is some kind of fee?

And if so, exactly what are the terms of the license? As in, if I distribute the OpenGl port under a different name, and make changes to it, such that it is a distinguishably new entity, would I still have to pay for a license, or whatever? I HATE paying for stuff.

2

I can see how OpenGL works by looking at the open source Mesa code. Because of that, there would be little advantage in looking at or stealing your code. The only thing that should be different is any assembly code.

For that matter, why not look into porting Mesa? There would be minimal work involved and you solve the open source and license issues.