nvidia

[Frank Cox]

On Sun, 28 Oct 2007 19:06:21 +0000
Chris Jones <jonesc at hep.phy.cam.ac.uk> wrote:

> Are you saying the driver is illegal full stop ?

It may be.

> If so in what way ?

It adds a binary blob to the kernel.

I just found a reference that explains this rather well.

QUOTE:
The majority of core Linux contributors believe (based on legal advice) that
it's impossible to produce a loadable Linux kernel module without it being a
derivative of the kernel code to some extent, and therefore having to fall
under the GPL due to the GPL's restrictions on derivative works. It's not a
situation that's ever been tested in court, and clearly not everyone agrees -
however, it's plausible enough that there's basically no chance of code being
added to the core kernel for no purpose other than facilitating a set of
non-GPLed kernel modules.
END OF QUOTE

You can find this (and further discussion) here:
http://blogs.sun.com/ahl/entry/dtrace_knockoffs

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