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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."

9 of 657 comments (clear)

  1. You Fail It!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Hahah!! I troll you better!!! You have no will of warrior!!

    I defeat your troll because I have will of warrior!!!!

  2. GPL/Linux Modules? by nil5 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    So how does this affect hardware developers? I mean come on, are they subject to the same constraints as typical kernel developers? The main proble, as I believe Linux was trying to outline in the article, is that using any sort of licensing scheme will result in some unexpected difficulties. if you go here you will find just the sort of licensing predicament we can expect from now on.

  3. Re:Older Thoughts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Looks like someone else must have been eating Plumrose Chicken Curry, 59p a tin!

    If anyone needs me, I'll be reading up on how to clear Squid's cache.

  4. Re:Older Thoughts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Mod parent down please. Link goes to the quite disgusting tubgirl.jpg

  5. Re:Older Thoughts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Mod Parent Up!!! Very informative. My how far we've came.

  6. MODS!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Mod parent up informative!

  7. Re:lines have to be drawn by leroybrown · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Since the Linux hackers have written an entire kernel...

    Where have you been for the past nine months? Didn't you hear? SCO wrote the Linux kernel!

    --
    Founder, Americans Allied Against Alliteration
  8. Pessimists are mind-killers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic
    Those who promise us paradise on earth never produced anything but a hell. -- Karl Popper

    Please take your pessimism somewhere else.

    Do people like you get some sort of sick pleasure from thinking negatively? Did you know that your negative thoughts will affect those near you, too? It's like mental second-hand smoke.

  9. Re:Pragmatism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    kill yourself, nerd