Messages in this thread | | | Subject | Re: What is accepted into the standard kernel sources ? | Date | Fri, 06 Feb 1998 06:31:39 +0000 | From | Ben Woodard <> |
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> > specifications. The driver - the part that interfaces between the > > Linux kernel and the library - is released under GPL. The library > > itself is not available in source form, but could be included with the > > On the contrary. You can't GPL the driver as it is linked with a private > binary object file and violates the license of the GPL. After our discussion > I checked this viewpoint with several folks. Take it up with the FSF lawyer > if you dont like it. > > Alan
What about the specific exception clause to the GPL that Eric Raymond has been talking about? Evidently, you can tack on a specific exemption to the GPL which avoids the tainting problem. They used it first to GPL java programs.
Now don't get me wrong, I personally think it is incredibly idiotic for a hardware vendor to want to maintain private portions of their code but I believe that there is a subtlely different interpretation to the GPL that rms endorses that allows for this sort of thing.
-ben
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