nvidia

[Les Mikesell]

Alan Cox wrote:

>>>> Then, even if you do make it, you'll have to establish why this isn't 
>>>> ordinary fair use of an interface required to interoperate with the kernel.
>>> Because it's contrary to the license under which the Linux kernel is
>>> distributed.  I don't think it can be made much clearer than that, frankly.
>>>
>> It's not at all clear why the kernel license should control someone 
>> else's work.
> 
> If the work is derived it isn't someone elses work, any more than if you
> add a scene to a movie and redistribute it. Thats the fundamental
> question - is the Nvidia driver a derived work. Some people believe no,
> some believe yes, nobody "knows" in the US legal sense because nobody has
> been to court to find out - and I suspect neither side considers it worth
> finding out.

I don't think you want to find out that a driver is derived from the OS 
it is written for, or you'll find all kinds of lawsuits crawling out of 
the closet about code included in linux that was originally written 
under some other OS.  SCO's claims to that effect weren't really 
disproven since they were mostly dismissed on other counts.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com