linux-kernel - Re: GPL vs non-GPL device drivers

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Message-ID:  <er94jf$s8s$1@sea.gmane.org>
Date:	Sun, 18 Feb 2007 10:00:27 +0100
From:	Giuseppe Bilotta <giuseppe.bilotta@...il.com>
To:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject:  Re: GPL vs non-GPL device drivers

On Sunday 18 February 2007 00:55, Michael K. Edwards wrote:

> Or they could run:
>     find . -type f -exec
perl -i.bak -pe 's/EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL/EXPORT_SYMBOL/g'
> and be done with it.  Or even just MODULE_LICENSE("GPL") in their
> module -- that's not "lying about the module license", it's "doing the
> minimum necessary in order to interoperate efficiently with the
> kernel".  Atari v. Nintendo is still good law, but only to the
> extent that it does not conflict with Lexmark, which now has the seal
> of Supreme Court approval.  And (IMHO, IANAL) if writing
> MODULE_LICENSE("GPL") is obviously the only remotely efficient way to
> achieve the goal of interoperation with the kernels that people
> already have on their systems

Except that this is not about a driver that is supposed to interoperated
with the kernels people already have on their systems. This is about
shipping new (embedded) systems with a modified (if you go the s/_GPL//g
route, even more so) Linux kernel, and distribution a modified kernel *has*
to comply with the GPL, since this is *exactly* what the GPL is about:
redistribution of modified copies of the work.

-- 
Giuseppe "Oblomov" Bilotta

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