Message-ID: <43e72e890801071247w4f25de53v1b5f09828fcb840c@mail.gmail.com> (sfid-20080107_204744_235805_9C07255A)
Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2008 15:47:40 -0500
From: "Luis R. Rodriguez" <mcgrof@gmail.com>
To: "Forest Bond" <forest@alittletooquiet.net>
Subject: Re: VT6656 driver source available from VIA
Cc: "John W. Linville" <linville@tuxdriver.com>,
	linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org
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On Jan 7, 2008 3:31 PM, Forest Bond <forest@alittletooquiet.net> wrote:
>
> On Mon, Jan 07, 2008 at 03:20:02PM -0500, Luis R. Rodriguez wrote:
> > On Jan 7, 2008 1:49 PM, Forest Bond <forest@alittletooquiet.net> wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > On Wed, Nov 14, 2007 at 12:06:34PM -0500, John W. Linville wrote:
> > > > On Wed, Nov 14, 2007 at 12:00:51PM -0500, Forest Bond wrote:
> > > >> On Sun, Nov 04, 2007 at 09:07:31PM -0500, Forest Bond wrote:
> > > >>> The post is here:
> > > >>>
> > > >>> http://forums.viaarena.com/messageview.aspx?catid=28&threadid=78745
> > > >>>
> > > >>> Any noise that can be contributed is welcome and appreciated.  You'll need
> > > >>> to create an account to post, though.
> > > >
> > > >> I also added these.  Perhaps having plenty of content/links regarding this
> > > >> issue will help to increase visibility:
> > > >>
> > > >> http://www.alittletooquiet.net/text/a-license-for-the-via-vt6656-linux-driver/
> > > >> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.22/+bug/162671
> > > >
> > > > Excellent...I appreciate your efforts as an agitator! :-)
> > >
> > > At this point I am not anticipating positive results WRT this endeavor, and am
> > > unable to pursue further assistance from VIA.  Further, I've seen that the
> > > driver in question likely exhibits some interesting quirks that makes it
> > > difficult to use.  It is also bit-rotting out of relevance.
> >
> > This is unfortunate to hear...
> >
> > > Can the driver be used as a reference for a fresh implementation?  I've not
> > > written a driver before, but would be open to the possibility.
> >
> > IANAL but I believe It basically depends on the license the vendor
> > issued the driver under and its sources under. If no license was used
> > then I believe the standard copyright license terms should be assumed.
> > What license was used throughout the driver files?
> >
> > > What are the legal ramifications of a driver author having access to
> > > proprietary source code?
> >
> > Again, I believe it depends on the license/NDA/terms under which the
> > driver author obtained access to such proprietary source code. The
> > more details you provide the better.
>
> The license was omitted.  This was presumably an oversight, but intentions are
> always hard to know when the other party isn't saying anything :)

I'm calling their offices now, we should be able to just talk to
someone from their dev team...

> There's little doubt in my mind that we get nothing more than fair use out of
> this package, though.  The question is "is that enough?".  Code copying is
> obviously not allowed, but is a new (and sufficiently different) implementation
> allowed?

I think so but IANAL so not too sure, we can then ask SFLC to verify
in the end what's possible or not.

  Luis