Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S264106AbUD3Pzb (ORCPT ); Fri, 30 Apr 2004 11:55:31 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S264674AbUD3Pzb (ORCPT ); Fri, 30 Apr 2004 11:55:31 -0400 Received: from pop.gmx.de ([213.165.64.20]:9893 "HELO mail.gmx.net") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id S264106AbUD3Pz1 (ORCPT ); Fri, 30 Apr 2004 11:55:27 -0400 X-Authenticated: #21910825 Message-ID: <409276D6.9070500@gmx.net> Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 17:55:02 +0200 From: Carl-Daniel Hailfinger User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040114 X-Accept-Language: de, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Giuliano Colla CC: Linus Torvalds , hsflinux@lists.mbsi.ca, Rusty Russell , Andrew Morton , Linux Kernel Mailing List Subject: Re: [hsflinux] [PATCH] Blacklist binary-only modules lying about their license References: <408DC0E0.7090500@gmx.net> <40914C35.1030802@copeca.dsnet.it> <409256A4.5080607@copeca.dsnet.it> In-Reply-To: <409256A4.5080607@copeca.dsnet.it> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2517 Lines: 69 Giuliano Colla wrote: > Linus Torvalds ha scritto: > >> On Thu, 29 Apr 2004, Giuliano Colla wrote: >> >>> Let's try not to be ridiculous, please. >> >> It's not abotu being ridiculous. It's about honoring peoples copyrights. > > On that ground you're correct. > [...] > But please do consider a different perspective. > > I'm an end user. > I download a damn Linuxant driver because the manufacturer of the laptop > I own has seen fit to use a Conexant chipset. > In order to do that I must: > a) Pay a (small) sum. > b) Accept a Microsoft-like license agreement. > If at that point I haven't realized that I'm not getting a fully GPL'd > software I'm really terminally stupid as you kindly suggest. If you look at the price of a cardbus real modem on ebay, you might be surprised that these things are really cheap. Sometimes buying software to support the winmodems is actually more expensive than buying a real modem. > However, if I'm not terminally stupid, I will never think of addressing > to kernel people in order to fix problems arising from or after loading > the driver, and associated utilities, even if lsmod doesn't show > "tainted" modules. Kernel people shouldn't even consider supporting the > resulting mess. How would you know NOT to complain to linux-kernel if there is no sign you shouldn't? > That said, I'd like to explain what made me react to the announcement > posted. > > Linuxant have figured a Microsoft-like brute force hardware detection > mechanism: they attempt to load *all* drivers, and only the one which > [...] > But I didn't appreciate that the reaction to that mess has been also on > Microsoft style. > The reaction has been: > > a) a workaround of the workaround (if you put a \0, I'll detect the > Linuxant string) Was there anything else that could have been done for the existing fake GPL modules? > b) a lie (the /GPL directory is empty). I have this FUCKING Linuxant .rpm with an empty GPL directory right on my hard disk. And this .rpm is signed by Linuxant. So either Linuxant has been hacked (someone stole the key, signed a bogus rpm and broke into thir site uploading it) or they are careless (forgetting to fill the GPL directory for some packages). In both cases I would not trust them. Carl-Daniel - 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/