Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1751543AbXBPKah (ORCPT ); Fri, 16 Feb 2007 05:30:37 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751538AbXBPKag (ORCPT ); Fri, 16 Feb 2007 05:30:36 -0500 Received: from turing-police.cc.vt.edu ([128.173.14.107]:47823 "EHLO turing-police.cc.vt.edu" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1750750AbXBPKag (ORCPT ); Fri, 16 Feb 2007 05:30:36 -0500 Message-Id: <200702161030.l1GAUXmI026421@turing-police.cc.vt.edu> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.7.2 01/07/2005 with nmh-1.2 To: v j Cc: Trent Waddington , David Lang , Scott Preece , Miguel Ojeda , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: GPL vs non-GPL device drivers In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 15 Feb 2007 22:25:12 PST." <9b3a62ab0702152225m3893318by95cb8b260c74bfc2@mail.gmail.com> From: Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu References: <9b3a62ab0702142115m4ea7d2c0m6869eb64ef3ee14e@mail.gmail.com> <20070215061149.GE15654@redhat.com> <9b3a62ab0702142227j19386132s870a0e745cfbb8d1@mail.gmail.com> <20070215165339.GB5285@thunk.org> <9b3a62ab0702151020k5bd0e4c9w763e1b01288ccc4f@mail.gmail.com> <653402b90702151102n3a3e0435r837e2191de79b2b@mail.gmail.com> <7b69d1470702151712x685f3e0eqf6198f9bb7f2394e@mail.gmail.com> <9b3a62ab0702152148p57db8b1dgd42b1c6fb15dccbb@mail.gmail.com> <3d57814d0702152157n461a9f0cta0a0c20e9a592d83@mail.gmail.com> <9b3a62ab0702152225m3893318by95cb8b260c74bfc2@mail.gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; boundary="==_Exmh_1171621833_6166P"; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2007 05:30:33 -0500 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2301 Lines: 58 --==_Exmh_1171621833_6166P Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii On Thu, 15 Feb 2007 22:25:12 PST, v j said: (Damn, hit send too soon) > No, just that the trend is disturbing. If enough Kernel Developers > choose to write their Software in a way that prevents others from > using it freely, then that is troubling. Especially when these Kernel > Developers are substituting existing interfaces in the Kernel with > ones that are NEW and require specific licenses. Again - there's nothing stopping you from fixing *your* copy to work any way you want. I freely admit that *my* kernel is quite often running code that I don't want to release under the GPL (usually because it's too ghastly for submission in-tree :) - but that's OK, because I don't let that sort of code escape. :) There's nothing stopping you from shipping a GPL'ed patch that fixes it the way you want it to work, to any and all who want to install your patch. I've done that too - posted "provably incorrect, but works for me" patches for bugs I've hit. Once in a while, my "provably incorrect" assertion even turns out to be itself incorrect. ;) There's nothing stopping you from shipping GPL'ed code that lies about its MODULE_LICENSE. But if you're shipping *non*-GPL'ed code that does that sort of thing, you demonstrate that you *knew* what the author thought about derivative works. So you really have 4 options: 0) Don't ship code. Send a board and a spec sheet to Greg KH. :) 1) Release it properly under the GPL. 2) Consult a lawyer, and decide to risk shipping it non-GPL. 3) Rebase your code so it runs on a *BSD or vxworks or other OS where your code's licence and the OS license are known to be compatible. Pick one, and live with it. --==_Exmh_1171621833_6166P Content-Type: application/pgp-signature -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Exmh version 2.5 07/13/2001 iD8DBQFF1YfJcC3lWbTT17ARAn4IAJwNuINV6uxhFjaXvCql472aM6jFvACeJ+r9 gqNqGABuRcvJ0ZAAmZtC6nw= =b1+m -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --==_Exmh_1171621833_6166P-- - 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/