Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1945924AbXBPJ6a (ORCPT ); Fri, 16 Feb 2007 04:58:30 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1945925AbXBPJ6a (ORCPT ); Fri, 16 Feb 2007 04:58:30 -0500 Received: from ns.firmix.at ([62.141.48.66]:42537 "EHLO ns.firmix.at" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1945924AbXBPJ63 (ORCPT ); Fri, 16 Feb 2007 04:58:29 -0500 Subject: Re: GPL vs non-GPL device drivers From: Bernd Petrovitsch To: Scott Preece Cc: Stuart MacDonald , v j , Randy Dunlap , Dave Jones , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org In-Reply-To: <7b69d1470702151636y243919c0n5307eaf7d20499c2@mail.gmail.com> References: <9b3a62ab0702142328h87365b6i932d4f2c117f7f0e@mail.gmail.com> <000001c7511d$829e91c0$294b82ce@stuartm> <7b69d1470702151636y243919c0n5307eaf7d20499c2@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain Organization: Firmix software GmbH Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2007 10:58:13 +0100 Message-Id: <1171619893.23981.14.camel@tara.firmix.at> 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: -2.417 () AWL,BAYES_00,FORGED_RCVD_HELO X-Firmix-Spam-Status: No, hits=-2.417 required=5 X-Spam-Score: -2.417 () 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: 1205 Lines: 30 On Thu, 2007-02-15 at 18:36 -0600, Scott Preece wrote: [...] > Note that it is possible that what vj said is strictly true. IF the > product they ship is non-modifiable, then it's hard to argue that > anyone else could maintain it. And if the drivers are for devices The GPL has no special handling for that case. > proprietary to their hardware, then they have no real value to anyone > else. And the drivers MIGHT contain information useful to their actual > competitors. I have no knowledge as to whether those conditions And that may a (BTW invalid) reason for lots of companies but you probably won't find an exception in the GPLv2 for this. And if you infringe on others' patents, you should probably look elsewhere for a solution of that problem. > actually apply. 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/