On 08/19/2015 06:21 PM, Rich Freeman wrote: >> >> Copyright law makes everything illegal. Downloading the source and >> reading it is illegal. Why wouldn't it be illegal? The copyright holders >> have made it clear that you have no license to do so. >> > > If I distribute a binary kernel module, I'm not copying anything that > I didn't write. I'm the copyright holder of the binary kernel module. >
Anything you can do without the kernel source code is legal, sure. But we're talking about... 1. Downloading the kernel source (making a copy of) it. 2. Patching it. 3. Linking it with closed source code. 4. Distributing the result. (If that's not what you have in mind, maybe we are at cross purposes). Step #1 is illegal unless you have a licence. The burden of proof is on you to show that you were allowed to do it. > > That is why I want you to actually look up the letter of the law, > because if the specific action being done isn't in the letter of the > law, then those claiming copyright have an uphill battle ahead of > them. > I'm not going to go look up whatever statute says "you can't make a copy of copyrighted stuff" =P
