Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S932420AbXBTLBK (ORCPT ); Tue, 20 Feb 2007 06:01:10 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S932425AbXBTLBK (ORCPT ); Tue, 20 Feb 2007 06:01:10 -0500 Received: from ns.firmix.at ([62.141.48.66]:45270 "EHLO ns.firmix.at" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S932420AbXBTLBI (ORCPT ); Tue, 20 Feb 2007 06:01:08 -0500 Subject: Re: GPL vs non-GPL device drivers From: Bernd Petrovitsch To: v j Cc: davids@webmaster.com, trent.waddington@gmail.com, "Michael K. Edwards" , "Linux-Kernel@Vger. Kernel. Org" , Neil Brown In-Reply-To: <9b3a62ab0702192119l1bf9a284la93c9d1f01638ca4@mail.gmail.com> References: <3d57814d0702191458l1021caeyaefd7775398c5f2a@mail.gmail.com> <9b3a62ab0702192119l1bf9a284la93c9d1f01638ca4@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain Organization: Firmix software GmbH Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2007 12:00:51 +0100 Message-Id: <1171969251.12262.16.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: 1883 Lines: 42 On Mon, 2007-02-19 at 21:19 -0800, v j wrote: [...] > Now it would also be worthwhile to contemplate what EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL > does to this popularity. I don't know. I am just giving you my The big problem with such discussions (as this) are: It is a law decision which license applies in which situation. And preprocessor can solve this (so EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL may mean that or may only express the wish of one/several/many/a lot of people). Flame bait alert: I heard a talk from an Austrian lawyer an according to his believes (and I don't know if he is the only one or if there lots of) one must see from the "users" view if the GPL spreads over or not (and the usual technical terms like "linking" are basically irrelevant). E.g.: - You are distributing an application which links against a GPL-library. If you provide a link and the user/customer has to get and install that library, your application can have any license you wish. - If you distribute an application and it installs automatically a library (e.g. from the CD where your application is installed), your applications license must "fit" wit the library license. Guess now what this implies for (typical) embedded systems with one piece of GPL code in it where you download complete firmware images - and he explicitly confirmed that. So this whole thing is not really defined yet and one (read: we) must also educate such free-software-illiterate people on how it is intended to work. 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/