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Linux: the GPL and Binary Modules

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."

2 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. :-)