Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S932542AbVLMIVa (ORCPT ); Tue, 13 Dec 2005 03:21:30 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S932543AbVLMIVa (ORCPT ); Tue, 13 Dec 2005 03:21:30 -0500 Received: from embla.aitel.hist.no ([158.38.50.22]:23175 "HELO embla.aitel.hist.no") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id S932542AbVLMIV3 (ORCPT ); Tue, 13 Dec 2005 03:21:29 -0500 Message-ID: <439E8565.3000900@aitel.hist.no> Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2005 09:25:09 +0100 From: Helge Hafting User-Agent: Debian Thunderbird 1.0.7 (X11/20051017) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "Salyzyn, Mark" CC: Andrea Arcangeli , Arjan van de Ven , "Randy.Dunlap" , Rik van Riel , William Lee Irwin III , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Linux in a binary world... a doomsday scenario References: <547AF3BD0F3F0B4CBDC379BAC7E4189F01EE9BB3@otce2k03.adaptec.com> In-Reply-To: <547AF3BD0F3F0B4CBDC379BAC7E4189F01EE9BB3@otce2k03.adaptec.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1545 Lines: 32 Salyzyn, Mark wrote: >For instance, there are reasons, somewhat outside the control of the >Hardware Vendor, for binary drivers. Often, in the hopes of achieving >standards compliance, Hardware vendors are cornered by legalities over >the copyright associated with those standards that ties their hands >either from releasing interface documentation or from releasing source >code. Yet all these vendors would be overjoyed to have Linux drivers for >their Hardware in order to increase the sales of their products. > > Uh, a copyrighted standard? They are trying to live up to a secret standard, one they cannot publish? Don't sound like a standard to me - a standard is something known, that is the purpose of standardization. This sounds like "we standardized the voltage for household lamps, but we won't tell if it is 110V, 220V or something completely different." I really hope I misunderstood this. Standards compliance should never get in the way of open source. Sure - if the owner modifies the source, then the thing may no longer comply with the standard. In some cases even illegal or dangerous. But in that case, it is the fault of the owner, not the vendor. The vendor can simply say that anyone changing the (distributed) source should get their own certification. Helge Hafting - 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/