linux-kernel - RE: Binary Drivers

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Message-ID: <MDEHLPKNGKAHNMBLJOLKKEGPAJAC.davids@webmaster.com>
Date:	Tue, 26 Dec 2006 11:53:02 -0800
From:	"David Schwartz" <davids@...master.com>
To:	<sepreece@...il.com>
Cc:	<vonbrand@...top13.inf.utfsm.cl>, <Valdis.Kletnieks@...edu>,
	"Linux-Kernel@...r. Kernel. Org" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: RE: Binary Drivers

> Again, while some of the car/house analogies may describe situations
> where the seller has not conveyed all the rights, the video card
> situation is completely different. You have the right to do what you
> like with it and the seller retains no rights. Lack of documentation
> is not an imposition on your rights, unless you had a specific promise
> of documentation from the seller.

I'm curious if you really believe this. So let me set up one last
hypothetical.

You buy a phone for $200. The manufacturer only represents that it works
with CarrierCo. (You do not buy the phone form CarrierCo.)

Two months later, CarrierCo stops supporting your phone's configuration. You
need to make a configuration change to the phone to get it to work on
CarrierCo's "newly upgraded" network.

You go to change the phone's configuration and you discover it requires a
code. You call the manufacturer of the phone and say "hey, it's my phone,
give me my lock out code". The manufacturer says, "sure, for $450".

You have the right to do what you like with the phone, of course. It's a
great doorstop and a reasonable paper weight. The manufacturer didn't
promise the phone's configuration wouldn't become obsolete or that you would
be able to change the configuration. Lack of documentation is not an
imposition on your rights, and you had no specific promise of documentation
from the seller.

I have to say, it honestly astonishes me that would people would make
arguments like these. Are we so used to these kinds of one-sided
arrangements that we've lost our common sense?

DS

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