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

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Date:	Tue, 20 Feb 2007 08:58:34 +1000
From:	"Trent Waddington" <trent.waddington@...il.com>
To:	"Michael K. Edwards" <medwards.linux@...il.com>
Cc:	davids@...master.com,
	"Linux-Kernel@...r. Kernel. Org" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	"Neil Brown" <neilb@...e.de>
Subject: Re: GPL vs non-GPL device drivers

On 2/20/07, Michael K. Edwards <medwards.linux@...il.com> wrote:
> There is no legal meaning to "combining" two works of authorship under
> the Berne Convention or any national implementation thereof.  If you
> "compile" or "collect" them, you're in one area of law, and if you
> create a work that "adapts" or "recasts" (or more generally "derives
> from") them, you're in another area of law.

As I said, you're having a purely semantic argument.

Regardless of what you *call* it, shoving two works together does not
excuse you from the conditions of the license on one of those works,
*when you make a copy*.  And that's the GPL in a nutshell, if you want
to copy the work, you need a license, if you want a license, you must
abide the conditions, and one of the conditions is that you may not
combine it with a work that is under an incompatible license unless it
is mere aggregation.

Of course, now you're going to argue that there's no such thing as an
"incompatible license" or "mere aggregation" and that these are just
words that were made up for the GPL, so they can be ignored.. another
pointless semantic argument because it doesn't change the very simple
fact that you don't have any rights to copy the work unless you have a
license and you don't have a license if you fail to abide the
conditions of the license.

Trent
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