On Tuesday 29 January 2008 19:46:06 Måns Rullgård wrote: > Adrian Bunk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > On Tue, Jan 29, 2008 at 11:25:22PM +0000, Måns Rullgård wrote: > >> Adrian Bunk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > >> > On Tue, Jan 29, 2008 at 04:22:45PM -0500, Pavel Roskin wrote: > >> >> Hello! > >> >> > >> >> It have come to my attention that a patch has been committed to the > >> >> kernel with the explicit purpose of tainting ndiswrapper - the kernel > >> >> module allowing Windows NDIS drivers for Ethernet and Wireless cards > >> >> to be used by the kernel. > >> >>... > >> >> Just to reiterate some points from the old discussion: > >> >>... > >> >> - no copyright violation is involved, as Windows drivers are not > >> >> derived from Linux sources > >> >>... > >> > > >> > It is interesting that someone posting with an @gnu.org address claims > >> > that dynamic linking of not GPLv2 compatible code into GPLv2 code was > >> > not a copyright violation. > >> > >> As long as you don't distribute /proc/kcore, I can't see how the GPL > >> would have any say in the matter. The Windows drivers are (unrelated > >> violations aside) clearly not derived from GPL code.
Only because of the distribution of the windows driver. As I understand US and International copyright law, dynamic linking cannot create a new, derivative work and hence cannot carry its own license. (It's a "machine translation") What that means is that there is no violation of the GPL if GPL'd code is linked to proprietary code and then distributed. However, the GPLv3 does have language in it that would require the proprietary code to also be distributed. DRH -- Dialup is like pissing through a pipette. Slow and excruciatingly painful. -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
