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    SubjectRe: Why is Nvidia given GPL'd code to use in non-free drivers?
    Date
    Mark Mielke <mark@mark.mielke.cc> writes:

    >I have the freedom to use Linux and ClearCase. If closed source modules
    >were to be disallowed, it would be illegal for me to use this configuration,
    >and I would be forced to use HP-UX or Solaris, and not Linux.

    No, it wouldn't. Thats' what most people don't understand. You
    wouldn't have a license to GIVE AWAY a system which consists of Linux
    kernel and MVFS object module.

    You definitely have a license to get a Linux system, install it, run
    it and install on it every piece of software you like. If you install
    MVFS, there is nothing in the GPL to prevent you from this. Neither in
    the GPL nor in the Linux-modified version of "you may load binary
    modules" GPL. This is your personal decision of your personal
    system. If you install a module that is binary only, fine.

    GPL is about SOFTWARE DISTRIBUTION. Not about SOFTWARE USAGE. I know
    (and I read this in many of his postings) that RMS likes to blur this
    point into "if it is not free, you must not use it with GPL software",
    but this is simply _NOT TRUE_. It is your personal freedom to choose
    and use a binary module. If you redistribute it, you may take freedom
    from the recipient away and this prohibits the GPL. But not your
    personal usage.

    Sheesh. I have lots of kernel modules in current use which will never
    be released outside the scope of my own boxes. That's no breach of the
    GPL. You'll never be able to acquire either a source or a binary code
    license. This is my code. You cannot have it. My freedom to decide so.
    End of story.

    Regards
    Henning


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