Messages in this thread | | | Date | Thu, 15 Feb 2007 18:40:49 +1100 | From | Nick Piggin <> | Subject | Re: GPL vs non-GPL device drivers |
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Ben Nizette wrote: > v j wrote: > >> This is in reference to the following thread: >> >> http://lkml.org/lkml/2006/12/14/63 >> >> I am not sure if this is ever addressed in LKML, but linux is _very_ >> popular in the embedded space. We (an embedded vendor) chose Linux 3 >> years back because of its lack of royalty model, robustness and >> availability of infinite number of open-source tools. > > [...] > >> However we have a worrying trend here. If at some point it becomes >> illegal to load our modules into the linux kernel, then it is >> unacceptable to us. We would have been better off choosing VxWorks or >> OSE 3 years ago when we made an OS choice. The fact that Linux is >> becoming more and more closed is very very alarming. >> > 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 > to the world which just happen to only run on the modified kernel. I've > read the GPL of course (IANAL though) and I can't see what this violates > except the /spirit/ of the license. Don't get me wrong, I'm strongly > against anyone doing what I just mentioned, I believe it to be immoral > taking someone's GPL'd code and mangling it in such a way. I speak as > an embedded developer myself whose company decided that running our code > under Linux and distributing our code under the GPL was far preferable > to running closed-source software on a closed-source platform.
The best bet would be to read up on lots of past discussions related to exactly these kinds of questions, then ask your Lawyer.
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?
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