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References: <5449aac20511010949x5d96c7e0meee4d76a67a06c01@mail.gmail.com> <200511012000.21176.mbuesch@freenet.de> <4367A990.2040301@utah-nac.org> <200511012012.32995.mbuesch@freenet.de> <5449aac20511011246r6ece9f18rb3b7353dbfc2dedb@mail.gmail.com>
Content-class: urn:content-classes:message
Subject: Re: Would I be violating the GPL?
Date: Tue, 1 Nov 2005 16:06:27 -0500
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.61.0511011604020.2825@chaos.analogic.com>
Thread-Topic: Would I be violating the GPL?
Thread-Index: AcXfKB/ggpNrgNBbTnC68nwdkmUj6Q==
From: "linux-os \(Dick Johnson\)" <linux-os@analogic.com>
To: <alex@alexfisher.me.uk>
Cc: "Michael Buesch" <mbuesch@freenet.de>,
       "Jeff V. Merkey" <jmerkey@utah-nac.org>, <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
Reply-To: "linux-os \(Dick Johnson\)" <linux-os@analogic.com>
Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org
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On Tue, 1 Nov 2005, Alexander Fisher wrote:

> On 11/1/05, Michael Buesch <mbuesch@freenet.de> wrote:
>> On Tuesday 01 November 2005 18:44, you wrote:
>>> No, don't take the code without the suppliers permission.
>>
>> I interpreted his text as if he already has permission to use the code.
>>
>>> It contains
>>> trade secrets and you can get into a ot of trouble if there's an
>>> agreement between the two of you.  Contact the supplier.  Tell them to
>>> abstract away thre kernel headers, or rewrite to remove them, or grant
>>> you persmission to open source the driver.
>>
>> I did not say he should open source the driver. That will give trouble.
>> I suggested to write a _device_ specification. Driver specific things do not
>> care.
>
> I've got the source code to the device firmware too.  So despite the
> fact the driver has been written in c++, it might be possible to write
                                   ^^^^^^^^_________

So you must have some user-mode code (which may not have to be GPL)
plus something that gets installed in the kernel??? Certainly you
don't have a working kernel driver written in C++, do you???


> a usable specification.  This isn't something I want to do.  I'd
> imagine this sort of action can really ruin a supplier/customer
> relationship.  What good is a GPLed driver if no one is prepared to
> sell you the hardware?
> So if the conclusion is that the driver can't be distributed under
> anything other than the GPL (further opinions/confirmations welcome),
> I think I've got two options.  Find a different hardware vendor or
> convince the current supplier to relicense their code.
> I'm hoping that the opinions from one or two major linux kernel
> copyright holders will help me in convincing them to do this.
>
> Thanks,
> Alex
> -
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Cheers,
Dick Johnson
Penguin : Linux version 2.6.13.4 on an i686 machine (5589.55 BogoMips).
Warning : 98.36% of all statistics are fiction.
.

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