Re: [PATCH] USB: mark USB drivers as being GPL only

From: David Newall
Date: Fri Feb 08 2008 - 14:42:42 EST


Greg KH wrote:
> A "driver" is not an "application" as you tried to reference in your
> prior quotes.
I think your treating what the learned Professors said to literally.


> It is a tiny portion of the whole kernel,

The Copyright Act draws no such a distinction.

> and as such,
> does fall under the derivative works portion when it is run within the
> Linux kernel.
>

Section 0 of GPL: The act of running the Program is not restricted.

> Again, see the Samba decisions that have happened in the past when
> companies have tried to add modules to it that are not under the GPL.
> They have failed every single time, so there is a lot of precedent for
> this kind of thing.
>

I'd like to, but I've searched and searched and can't find them. Some
pointers, maybe a search term, would be useful.

> This is going to be my last response on this thread,
Good idea. I've spent too much time on this already, so I think I'll
join you.
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