Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S269187AbUJKSdy (ORCPT ); Mon, 11 Oct 2004 14:33:54 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S269003AbUJKSbs (ORCPT ); Mon, 11 Oct 2004 14:31:48 -0400 Received: from mailwasher.lanl.gov ([192.65.95.54]:37472 "EHLO mailwasher-b.lanl.gov") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S269177AbUJKS1y (ORCPT ); Mon, 11 Oct 2004 14:27:54 -0400 Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2004 12:27:48 -0600 (MDT) From: "Ronald G. Minnich" X-X-Sender: rminnich@linux.site To: Michael Krause cc: openib-general@openib.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: [openib-general] InfiniBand incompatible with the Linux kernel? In-Reply-To: <6.1.2.0.2.20041008152933.01f671a8@esmail.cup.hp.com> Message-ID: References: <20041008202247.GA9653@kroah.com> <6.1.2.0.2.20041008152933.01f671a8@esmail.cup.hp.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-PMX-Version: 4.6.0.99824 X-PMX-Version: 4.6.0.99824 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1491 Lines: 34 On Fri, 8 Oct 2004, Michael Krause wrote: > Spec for free or spec for a price - neither grants anyone rights to any > IP contained within the specifications or on the technologies that > surround the specification. The change in spec cost, while clearly > unfortunate, has no impact on the IP rights. IP rights are defined by > the IBTA membership agreement (just like they are for PCI and any number > of other technologies used within the industry). If you want to > implement a technology, then you have to be a member of the appropriate > organization and agree to the same industry-wide terms that others do. > Hence, this problem is not IB-specific but a fact of life within the > industry. funny, I don't recall these problems with Ethernet. > Again, this is true of many technologies not just IB. For example, if a > company has patents on PCI Express and someone implements a device / > chipset / whatever and they are not part of the PCI-SIG, then they can > be subject to different terms than someone who is a member of the > PCI-SIG. In both cases, the access to specs, etc. has nothing to do > with IP licensing. sorry, I think about protocol software differently than chips. Maybe I'm thinking incorrectly here. ron - 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/