lkml.org 
[lkml]   [2008]   [Nov]   [18]   [last100]   RSS Feed
Views: [wrap][no wrap]   [headers]  [forward] 
 
Messages in this thread
    /
    Date
    From
    SubjectRe: Developing non-commercial drivers ?
    Fredrik Markström wrote:

    > At this point I feel that we have two possibilities, help our customer
    > violate GPL or say no to the project. I'd prefer a third option where
    > I could tell the customer that we can setup the project in a certain
    > way (some "cleanroom" setup ?) to ensure that the results can not be
    > considered derived work.
    >
    > Is your short answer also the definite answer considering this ?

    I'm not a lawyer, and you need to consult one.

    There isn't really a "definate answer" since it depends on copyright
    law, which varies by region. The key question is whether the driver is
    a derivative work of the kernel under copyright law. For the purposes
    of copyright law this is primarily a legal question, not a technical one.

    There are some that claim that a driver written for another OS and
    running in linux via a shim layer could qualify (especially if the
    closed-source portion is written without any knowledge of linux
    internals). Nvidia is one company that does this, but there are others
    as well.

    Also, releasing the driver under the GPL doesn't necessarily mean
    "released to the world". Technically, they would only need to provide
    source code to their customers. Of course, their customers would be
    free to redistribute, but it's unlikely that most of them would bother.

    Chris
    --
    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/

    \
     
     \ /
      Last update: 2008-11-18 18:21    [W:2.284 / U:0.228 seconds]
    ©2003-2020 Jasper Spaans|hosted at Digital Ocean and TransIP|Read the blog|Advertise on this site