Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2006 23:51:47 +0100
From: Karsten Keil <kkeil@suse.de>
To: Carl-Daniel Hailfinger <c-d.hailfinger.devel.2006@gmx.net>
Cc: s.schmidt@avm.de, opensuse-factory@opensuse.org, Greg KH <greg@kroah.com>,
       torvalds@osdl.org, kkeil@suse.de, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
       libusb-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
Subject: Re: [opensuse-factory] Re[2]: 2.6.16 serious consequences / GPL_EXPORT_SYMBOL / USB drivers of major vendor excluded
Message-ID: <20060216225147.GB8073@pingi.kke.suse.de>
Mail-Followup-To: Carl-Daniel Hailfinger <c-d.hailfinger.devel.2006@gmx.net>,
	s.schmidt@avm.de, opensuse-factory@opensuse.org,
	Greg KH <greg@kroah.com>, torvalds@osdl.org, kkeil@suse.de,
	linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, libusb-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
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On Thu, Feb 16, 2006 at 11:09:21PM +0100, Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote:
> s.schmidt@avm.de wrote:
> > 
> > The user space does not ensure the reliability of time critical analog
> > services like Fax G3 or analog modem emulations. This quality of service
> > can only be guaranteed within the kernel space.
> > [...] To anticipate any "open vs. closed source" discussion: Only a
> > handful of companies worldwide have such know-how. With regard to our
> > competitive situation, we have to protect our hard-won intellectual
> > property and therefore cannot open the closed source part of the driver.
> 
> Thanks for clarifying the situation.
> 
> Since your intellectual property is in the DSP algorithms, are there
> any obstacles opensourcing the parts of the ISDN drivers which only
> handle normal ISDN without fax/modem emulation? This would make every
> distribution out there support your devices without any additional work
> on your side.
> You can still offer your full-featured drivers as usual.
> 

That is not the point here, some needed kernel symbols will change
to GPL_ONLY in some time, so you cannot build a binary only driver any
longer.

-- 
Karsten Keil
SuSE Labs
ISDN development
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