Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S262153AbTIMOSm (ORCPT ); Sat, 13 Sep 2003 10:18:42 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S262155AbTIMOSm (ORCPT ); Sat, 13 Sep 2003 10:18:42 -0400 Received: from mail2.sonytel.be ([195.0.45.172]:4761 "EHLO witte.sonytel.be") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S262153AbTIMOSk (ORCPT ); Sat, 13 Sep 2003 10:18:40 -0400 Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2003 16:18:35 +0200 (MEST) From: Geert Uytterhoeven To: Timothy Miller cc: David Schwartz , Pascal Schmidt , Linux Kernel Development Subject: Re: People, not GPL [was: Re: Driver Model] In-Reply-To: <3F6224C6.1020305@techsource.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1554 Lines: 40 On Fri, 12 Sep 2003, Timothy Miller wrote: > David Schwartz wrote: > You're stuck thinking about "law" and "rules". I'm thinking instead > about "honor". Indeed. The GPL may not be perfect, but IMHO the GPL is the only way to make sure everyone plays the game according to the rules. I.e. I give you something, you can use it, but please play according to the rules of fair play. BSD may look OK, but it doesn't protect against people who don't (want to) play according to the rules. > The point of divergence is with regard to modules and the symbol > restrictions for non-GPL drivers. Here is a gray area where the GPL may > not apply really. These gray areas are where ethics and honor must come > into play. I consider binary-only modules some kind of loophole to avoid playing according to the rules of fair play. Unfortunately it seems to be almost impossible to design a license that forces you to play according to the rules of fair play, and doesn't have any loopholes or grey areas. Gr{oetje,eeting}s, Geert -- Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@linux-m68k.org In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that. -- Linus Torvalds - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/