Sven Luther <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > Wemm, but the driver minus the user space thingy is GPLed, and can be > distributed with a standard kernel, and there is no breach of the GPL as > long as nobody use it, right ? > > The same thing would apply if you simply moved the proprietary part into > a separate kernel module, with just minimal API or something such, isn't > it ?
I think there is general consensus that splitting stuff into separate components, distributed separately, is not a valid way of bypassing the GPL. If you distribute stuff whose only plausible purpose is to end up on someone's system as part of a program containing both GPL and GPL-incompatible parts, then you are infringing the copyright of the authors of the GPL parts (unless they gave you some additional permission). The distribution of GPL-incompatible kernel modules is possible because modules that communicate via the standard module interface are not considered to be part of the kernel, I think. Edmund
