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Linux: the GPL and Binary Modules

Posted by michael on from the how-many-angels-on-the-head-of-a-pin dept.

An anonymous reader writes "When first made available in September of 1991, the Linux kernel source code was released under a very restrictive non-GPL license requiring that the source code must always be available, and that no money could be made off of it. Several months later Linus changed the copyright to the GPL, or GNU General Public License, under which the kernel source code has remained ever since. Thanks to the GPL, any source code derived from the Linux kernel source code must also be freely released under the GPL. This has led many to question the legality of 'binary only' kernel modules, for which no source code is released. Linux creator Linus Torvalds talks about this issue in a recent thread on the lkml."

4 of 657 comments (clear)

  1. I love this guy. by the+gnat · · Score: 5, Funny

    Linus really calls it the way he sees it, doesn't he?

    Your logic is fundamentally flawed, and/or your reading skills are deficient.

    You are a weasel, and you are trying to make the world look the way you want it to, rather than the way it _is_.

    Wow. I hope someday I'm enough of a badass to be able to flame people like that and get away with it. (That said, it's particularly impressive how Linus can fling these barbs at people and still come off as a reasonable guy, unlike quite a few open-source "leaders". Having a sense of humor seems to help quite a bit.)

  2. Another copyright defense. by ron_ivi · · Score: 5, Funny

    My driver is a parody of their driver. :-)

    1. Re:Another copyright defense. by TheSHAD0W · · Score: 3, Funny

      /* non-ATI hardware detection */
      if (!startswith(hwid, "ATI") {
      cout "You stupid Englishman! I wave my private parts at your aunties!";
      return(FALSE);
      }

  3. Re:Pragmatism by ashridah · · Score: 4, Funny

    There are for example [...] the famous nvidia drivers which work only on i386.

    Shenanigans! SHENANIGANS!

    (Example following)

    $ ncftp download1.nvidia.com
    Connecting to 216.228.115.24...
    Logging in...
    Anonymous user logged in.
    Logged in to download1.nvidia.com.
    ncftp / > ls
    [...]
    XFree86/
    [...]
    ncftp / > cd XFree86
    ncftp /XFree86 > ls
    FreeBSD-x86/ Linux-x86/ [...] Linux-ia64/ Linux-x86-64/ [...]
    ncftp /XFree86 >

    There you go!
    ia64 is not i386, regardless of what RISC loving zealots will scream about, and x86-64 is not i386 either.
    and what's more, FreeBSD is also not linux.

    I declare your statement partially false on two fronts!

    ashridah