linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] USB: mark USB drivers as being GPL only

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Date:	Mon, 4 Feb 2008 07:04:50 -0800
From:	Greg KH <greg@...ah.com>
To:	Matthew <jackdachef@...il.com>
Cc:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] USB: mark USB drivers as being GPL only

On Mon, Feb 04, 2008 at 12:43:11PM +0100, Matthew wrote:
> Hi everybody,
> 
> >Over two years ago, the Linux USB developers stated that they believed
> >there was no way to create a USB kernel driver that was not under the
> >GPL.  This patch moves the USB apis to enforce that decision.
> 
> >There are no known closed source USB drivers in the wild, so this patch
> >should cause no problems.
> 
> hm, I'm not sure, but will your patch make Samsung's Unified Linux
> Driver for printing & scanning stop working?
> http://org.downloadcenter.samsung.com/downloadfile/ContentsFile.aspx?CDSite=DE&CttFileID=801111&CDCttType=DR&ModelType=N&ModelName=SCX-4521F&VPath=DR/200707/20070720165133984_UnifiedLinuxDriver.tar.gz

No, in looking at that package, I do not see any kernel modules, just
userspace programs.  They must be using the usbfs interface to the
kernel from userspace, a perfict example of how a vendor can control USB
device from userspace, without needing a kernel driver :)

So it should continue to work just fine.

> another Manufacturer / Candidate I'm worrying about is Brother:
> http://solutions.brother.com/linux/en_us/index.html
> Brother is providing opensource cups drivers (kudos to the developers
> @ Brother for that!), the sane-drivers however seem to be closed
> source, will those work ?

Both sane and cups are userspace programs, using usbfs and the kernel
usblp driver respectively, and should not see anything change at all.

> I'm no developer, just a heavy user ;) so unfortunately I can't tell
> whether those drivers are dependent on being NOT GPL,

You would be seeing some warnings in the kernel log for the past 2 years
when using these products, about how the symbols were going to be
changed in the future.  If not, you are fine.

thanks,

greg k-h
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