[OT] The GPL and possible violations

Michael A. Peters mpeters at mac.com
Fri Feb 17 14:14:47 UTC 2006


On Fri, 2006-02-17 at 07:35 -0600, Les Mikesell wrote:

> 
> Isn't that the same claim that SCO has tried to make - that
> anything developed for and compiled with the Unix kernel
> is covered by their copyright and controlled by their
> terms regardless of who wrote it?

No - not at all.
Different scenario all together.

Ship a binary driver by itself - you aren't shipping any GPL code.
nvidia could ship their driver with their video cards, for example - and
be fine.

But once you are shipping the kernel, you have to abide by the GPL or
else you have no right to distribute the kernel at all. Since the binary
module adds functionality to the kernel, it is a modification to the GPL
product (kernel) you are shipping - and therefore has to be released
with a GPL compatible license.




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