Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1751079AbVKASFX (ORCPT ); Tue, 1 Nov 2005 13:05:23 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751080AbVKASFX (ORCPT ); Tue, 1 Nov 2005 13:05:23 -0500 Received: from [67.137.28.189] ([67.137.28.189]:51586 "EHLO vger.utah-nac.org") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751079AbVKASFW (ORCPT ); Tue, 1 Nov 2005 13:05:22 -0500 Message-ID: <43679B22.8070905@utah-nac.org> Date: Tue, 01 Nov 2005 09:43:14 -0700 From: "Jeff V. Merkey" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040510 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: alex@alexfisher.me.uk Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Would I be violating the GPL? References: <5449aac20511010949x5d96c7e0meee4d76a67a06c01@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <5449aac20511010949x5d96c7e0meee4d76a67a06c01@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2482 Lines: 65 Alan Cox and others have publicly stated that drivers, if complied stand alone with NO DEPENDENCIES ON KERNEL HEADERS (i.e. they do not incorporate in any way any kernel headers or source code tagged GPL) do not violate the GPL when provided with Linux. DSFS, NVidia, and several folks build kernel modules which are stand alone and are not objected to by the majority of folks. If these drivers include kernel headers as part of the build, then the drivers violate the GPL. Period. Check the code. If the vendor is including **ANY** GPL kernel headers, then they are required to open source the drivers. There are some zealots and GPL bigots that disagree with this, but Linux folks seem to be reasonable on this point. Jeff Alexander Fisher wrote: >Hello. > >A supplier of a PCI mezzanine digital IO card has provided a linux 2.4 >driver as source code. They have provided this code source with a >license stating I won't redistribute it in anyway. >My concern is that if I build this code into a module, I won't be able >to distribute it to customers without violating either the GPL (by not >distributing the source code), or the proprietary source code license >as currently imposed by the supplier. >>From what I have read, this concern is only valid if the binary module >is considered to be a 'derived work' of the kernel. The module source >directly includes the following kernel headers : > >#include >#include >#include >#include >#include >#include >#include >#include >#include >#include >#include > >Does this make the compiled module a derived work? Are the 'static >inlines' from the headers substantial enough? > >I really want to have a clear understanding of the issues before >contacting the supplier. Any advice would be very much appreciated. >Kind regards, >Alex >- >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/ > > > - 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/