From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S263824AbTLJR1L (ORCPT ); Wed, 10 Dec 2003 12:27:11 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S263830AbTLJR1K (ORCPT ); Wed, 10 Dec 2003 12:27:10 -0500 Received: from zcars0m9.nortelnetworks.com ([47.129.242.157]:30656 "EHLO zcars0m9.nortelnetworks.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S263824AbTLJR0O (ORCPT ); Wed, 10 Dec 2003 12:26:14 -0500 Message-ID: <3FD75711.3060103@nortelnetworks.com> Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2003 12:25:37 -0500 X-Sybari-Space: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 From: Chris Friesen User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:0.9.8) Gecko/20020204 X-Accept-Language: en-us MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Linus Torvalds Cc: Larry McVoy , Andre Hedrick , Arjan van de Ven , Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu, Kendall Bennett , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Linux GPL and binary module exception clause? References: <20031210153254.GC6896@work.bitmover.com> <20031210163425.GF6896@work.bitmover.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Linus Torvalds wrote: > But also note how it's only the BINARY MODULE that is a derived work. Your > source code is _not_ necessarily a derived work, and if you compile it for > another operating system, I'd clearly not complain. > > This is the "stand-alone short story" vs "extra chapter without meaning > outside the book" argument. See? One is a work in its own right, the other > isn't. We currently have a situation where an external company supplies us with a device driver containing a binary blob that was explicitly written as OS-agnostic, and a shim that is gpl'd (at least the linux shim is) to get the appropriate os-specific services. I guess this would fall under the "not made just for linux" category in which you've placed the Nvidia driver? Carrying on your analogy, this could be a generic love scene, with blanks in which to insert the character's names and location. Chris -- Chris Friesen | MailStop: 043/33/F10 Nortel Networks | work: (613) 765-0557 3500 Carling Avenue | fax: (613) 765-2986 Nepean, ON K2H 8E9 Canada | email: cfriesen@nortelnetworks.com