Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1751691AbXBOVxc (ORCPT ); Thu, 15 Feb 2007 16:53:32 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751692AbXBOVxc (ORCPT ); Thu, 15 Feb 2007 16:53:32 -0500 Received: from ns.firmix.at ([62.141.48.66]:42211 "EHLO ns.firmix.at" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751689AbXBOVxb (ORCPT ); Thu, 15 Feb 2007 16:53:31 -0500 Subject: Re: GPL vs non-GPL device drivers From: Bernd Petrovitsch To: Nick Piggin Cc: Ben Nizette , v j , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org In-Reply-To: <45D40E81.3050506@yahoo.com.au> References: <9b3a62ab0702142115m4ea7d2c0m6869eb64ef3ee14e@mail.gmail.com> <9b3a62ab0702142116n4069e16cl1bc8f546f41d935@mail.gmail.com> <45D3FC67.3000903@iinet.net.au> <45D40E81.3050506@yahoo.com.au> Content-Type: text/plain Organization: http://www.firmix.at/ Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2007 22:53:17 +0100 Message-Id: <1171576397.3473.10.camel@gimli.at.home> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.8.3 (2.8.3-1.fc6) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Firmix-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.56 on ns.firmix.at X-Firmix-Spam-Score: -2.416 () AWL,BAYES_00,FORGED_RCVD_HELO X-Firmix-Spam-Status: No, hits=-2.416 required=5 X-Spam-Score: -2.416 () AWL,BAYES_00,FORGED_RCVD_HELO Content-Disposition: inline Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1280 Lines: 31 On Thu, 2007-02-15 at 18:40 +1100, Nick Piggin wrote: > Ben Nizette wrote: [...] > > Question to the world here: Distros make, as a matter of course, a > > series of modifications to the Linux Kernel so that their modules or > > features work. What stops VJ making a patchset which effectively > > s/EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL/EXPORT_SYMBOL/g 's the kernel source then > > distributing that under the GPL? He then supplies his un-GPL'd modules Nothing. But it is pointless since that doesn't un-GPL source code. [...] > Rhetorical question: what stops me from taking somebody's copyrighted > work, stripping the copyrights or falsely claiming to have a license > to redistribute it, then selling it? No one. But that doesn't make the action legal or change the copyright/authors rights in anyway (at least in the more civilized parts of the world). Bernd -- Firmix Software GmbH http://www.firmix.at/ mobil: +43 664 4416156 fax: +43 1 7890849-55 Embedded Linux Development and Services - 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/