Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S964917AbWEOOAx (ORCPT ); Mon, 15 May 2006 10:00:53 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S964918AbWEOOAx (ORCPT ); Mon, 15 May 2006 10:00:53 -0400 Received: from outpipe-village-512-1.bc.nu ([81.2.110.250]:8163 "EHLO lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S964916AbWEOOAw (ORCPT ); Mon, 15 May 2006 10:00:52 -0400 Subject: RE: GPL and NON GPL version modules From: Alan Cox To: "Nutan C." Cc: Steven Rostedt , Jan Engelhardt , linux-kernel-Mailing-list , Fawad Lateef , jjoy@novell.com, "Mukund JB." , gauravd.chd@gmail.com, bulb@ucw.cz, greg@kroah.com, Shakthi Kannan , "Srinivas G." In-Reply-To: References: Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Mon, 15 May 2006 15:12:32 +0100 Message-Id: <1147702352.26686.24.camel@localhost.localdomain> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.2.3 (2.2.3-4.fc4) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1426 Lines: 34 On Llu, 2006-05-15 at 19:04 +0530, Nutan C. wrote: > 1. I developed a code which interfaces well with a proprietary OS. Now, > somebody else feels to use the same module in his Linux Kernel. So, he > comes up with a patch, which interfaces and talks to my module with my > interfaces and then makes a release with the patch. And, I would have no > idea of my module being really compatible/used in Linux Kernel. One fine > day, I would get a mail saying that I need to make my code open source. > What would be my reply? Probably not polite If someone takes your proprietary code and combines it with GPL code in a way the GPL license prohibits then they not you are committing the license violation (they are probably also violating your license as well as the GPL license by doing so) There are exceptions to that - one might be if you developed the code and arranged for the person to do the merge with Linux rather than someone else doing it. In the normal case of things I can combine two works only if the licenses of the two works are compatible, that is effectively only if I have permission from all parties who own rights on the resulting "derivative" work. Alan - 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/