On 3/4/06, J.O. Aho <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Sat, 4 Mar 2006, Jonas Sundström wrote: > > > Is there any possible interpretation of the GPL > > that would shut out the other, non-GPL systems from > > using GPL:ed hardware? Will it still be okay to make, > > e.g. closed source drivers for GPL:ed hardware, > > license-less (public domain) or BSD-like licensed > > drivers? > > Far from any expert in the filed, but I think making a driver would be the > same as linking a program against a gpl library, the license would taint > the code, which would prevent the closed source driver. There would be a > need of a LGPL to allow closed source drivers.
I think an argument could be made that the register spec for OGA is just a list of facts, and you can't copyright that. Anything based on that, whether that be another chip or a driver for our chip, is not affected by the copyright license for the chip. Imagine if using a proprietary-licensed PCI core were to restrict your freedoms in writing drivers or connecting other hardware to it. What would be the point? In a sense, OGA is a definition for an open standard. We could only charge for use of it if patents were applied to it. But copyright doesn't enter into the picture here. Copyright applies to someone copying our RTL and making a chip from it without complying with license terms. We've said nothing about someone designing something from scratch that speaks the same language. > Frankly I don't see the gain in making a closed source driver when > "everything" is already "open source", but of course microsoft would like > to hide their comments about open source ;) Producing a Windows driver may require this. Since I expect most driver will be under a BSD license, whoever wrote the Windows driver would release the parts they could and document how to get, from the Microsoft DDK, the rest of it in order to build the driver. _______________________________________________ Open-graphics mailing list [email protected] http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com)
