Re: [opensuse-factory] Re[2]: 2.6.16 serious consequences / GPL_EXPORT_SYMBOL / USB drivers of major vendor excluded

[Karsten Keil]

On Thu, Feb 16, 2006 at 11:09:21PM +0100, Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote:
> s.schmidt@xxxxxx wrote:
> > 
> > The user space does not ensure the reliability of time critical analog
> > services like Fax G3 or analog modem emulations. This quality of service
> > can only be guaranteed within the kernel space.
> > [...] To anticipate any "open vs. closed source" discussion: Only a
> > handful of companies worldwide have such know-how. With regard to our
> > competitive situation, we have to protect our hard-won intellectual
> > property and therefore cannot open the closed source part of the driver.
> 
> Thanks for clarifying the situation.
> 
> Since your intellectual property is in the DSP algorithms, are there
> any obstacles opensourcing the parts of the ISDN drivers which only
> handle normal ISDN without fax/modem emulation? This would make every
> distribution out there support your devices without any additional work
> on your side.
> You can still offer your full-featured drivers as usual.
> 

That is not the point here, some needed kernel symbols will change
to GPL_ONLY in some time, so you cannot build a binary only driver any
longer.

-- 
Karsten Keil
SuSE Labs
ISDN development
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