Messages in this thread | | | Date | Fri, 18 Aug 2006 11:04:15 +0200 | From | Helge Hafting <> | Subject | Re: GPL Violation? |
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Ian Stirling wrote: > > Well... > The problem is that in many cases AIUI, a large entry barrier to > someone taking CPU A, chip B, sticking it in a box, and selling > it, is that there is no linux driver for chip B. > If you (as someone who does not make chip B) release the GPL'd > driver, then you're making it a fair bit easier for competitors, > who can now simply copy your often not very novel in any way > other than you thought of it first - design, and use that driver. Which is why the maker of chip B would do very well to make a basic linux driver - perhaps not novel in any way, but now everybody want to use B chips because it comes with working software.
And if linux powered gadgets with chip B becomes popular, surely someone pick up the simple driver and improves it too.
Helge Hafting - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
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